The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-08-07

believed that several of the foreign Min
| listers in Pekin and Toxic have endeav-
ored, but in vain, to bring about a
modus vivendi by Suggestions of amicable
discussion of the points at issue before
duly selected arbitrator. China has
now over ten thousand picked troops in
Corea and nearly her entire feet an
chored four or five miles off from the
Japanese men-of-war. But, beyond the
men, there is nothing prepared. Com
mlsssarlats, transports, medical service,
&C., are all wanting in the Chinese Or
ganlzatlon, while in all these depart
ments the Japanese are excellently pro
y1ded, even to- cooking stoves, with
which every four men of the Japanese
army are provided, and they even
brought their own firewood with them,
tied up in regulation bundles, from
Japan.
The latter country, although China
got slight start of her in landing troops
in Corea is in a far better state to begin
immediate operations, and her soldiers,
officers and men have a dash, an elan,
totally wanting in the army from the
MANN 9th empire, though there is an
lnexhauslble raw material in China. In
the army which the ViceroY LII Hung
Chang has SEM toss Corea no less than
eleven different patterns of rifles andP
guns are in use, each requiring it's own
to arise from such a state of things 1t is
of very Difficulty to foresee. In the same
manner experts in naval matters declare
that there is such hopeless confusion In
the internal arrangements OF the chinese
men-of-war, and SO many things OF Vital
Importance are found to be missing or
never provided just at the crucial mo-
ment, that, despite their weight and vast
cost, the Chinese war ships would stand
no show against the Japanese.
A DARK OUTLOOK FOR Ii HUNG
CHANG.
This fact probably explains the intense
reluctance of the Viceroy and Pekin to
take up the unmistakable challenge
which Japan has thrown down to China,
but unless the Viceroy fights now he is
believed to be in great danger of losing
his prestige and inf uence with his own
people, and of falling victim to his
eiiemies in the mandarinate, who are
many. He has expended such enor omus
sums and called so heavily upon the i'm
perial treasury for the equipment of his
feet and army that he can scarcely say
that he is not prepared to fight the Japa-
nese, for whom thesChinese entertain the
profoundest contempt. This factor is
undoubtedly calculated to rush China's
rulers into war, while there is also little
doubt that the Japanese, much as they
dislike their Celestial cousins, have
traditional if now decried respect for the
more solid if less snowy qualities of the
Chinese character, a point in which
even their best friends agree the japanese
are rather lacking.
Outside of official circles, among the
merchants, traders and common people
in China, there is deep and vehement
conviction that China cannot put off
war with Japan-that she must settle
once and for all the question of suprem-
acy with her sturdy and com bative
little insular neighbor. Japan it must
be remem bered, is not half the size and
contains less than The population of one
Chinese province, Se-Chuen. Nor are
the resources of wealth, apart from the
industry and ingenuity of the people, to
be compared with China's There are,
however, those who believe that we shall
see repeated in the Orient the story of
the Greeks and the Persian hosts.
A STORY OF RUSSIAN INTRIGUE.
1t is openly asserted in the English
press here that M. Hitrovo and the
French Minister to Japan are melting
the Japanese to war, and promise sup
port M. Hitrovo is the erstwhile Rus
sian agent.whose plot for the removal
of one of the mOnarchs in the Balkans,
a couple of years ago, was exposed by M.
Stambuloff. The movements of the
Russian feet and of the land forces on
the northern frontier of Corea certainly
loo k as if Russia was playing a game
and the odds are that she will in the end
gain more from a struggle between
Chinasand Japan than either of the
disputants-N. Y. Herald.