Omaha daily bee., 1895-10-20
cation addressed by our government to any
foreign government.


MONROE DOCTRINE A MYSTERY.
That OF Itself indicates one OF the obsta-
cies we have to encounter Here is a doc
trine, which we regard as well settled and
OF binding obligation upon all persons con-
cerned, yet the doctrine depends on interpre-
tation, on collation., on the assemblage Of sew
eral different state papers. and when 1t
mas been put into legal English by legal
mind the question remains whether England
or Europe will assent to 1t, and whether it Is
applicable to the present case. We think we
know what We mean by It, but almost every
public man in America who has handled the
subject puts a different meaning on 1t, or
applies 1t in a different way to different
classes Of subjects, or takes one fact and re-
jects another. or, as Ex-Governor Campbell
of Ohio did at Tammany hall last Fourth of
July, boldly adds new articles of his own.
l dwell on these general considerations
rather than on the particulars of the Vene-
zuelan boundary question, partly because
these particulars are still imperfectly known
and still more because | think It important
that we should all try to have a clear no.
ton Of the true nature and extent Of the
task on which the president and his secretary
Of state are understood to have entered with,
as NJ. Emile olivier said to France early in
1870, light heart.
SALISBURY is HANGING BACK.
The general position of the English govern
ment has been indicated in London. Lord
Salisbury, 1t can only be he, though the re-
marks occur in newspaper, suggests dryly
that the American note requires the more
careful consideration because its statements
and arguments must have been drawn chiefly
from Venezuelan sources. Like Lord Rose
berry, Lord Salisbury declares himself willing
to submit 10 arbitration all there is to arbi-
trate on, namely. the frontier-but not the
right of Great Britain to territory of which
she has long been in possession by occupa-
tion or under the title she took over by
conquest from the Dutch.
There is suggestion from another source
that the English answer is kept back because
Lord Salisbury is trying to induce other Eu-
ropean powers to join him in refusal to
accept the Monroe doctrine. That is a mere
guess, and not a plausible one. Be that as
1t may, our demand for a particular form
of arbitration, or for arbitration covering
everything which Venezuela claims. may land
us In some curious perplexities. Suppose
England refuses, what are we going to do?
Logically, the next step would be to pro-
pose 70 submit the difference between us and
her to arbitration. We should then go be-
fore a tribunal of arbitration in order to
obtain decision on the point whether Eng
land ought to arbitrate or not, which comes
aarmingly near reducing arbitration to an
absurdity.
BARBARIANS BROUGHT TO TERMS.
have left myself room for only the brief
est remark on what are still the two capital
points of European and Asatic diplomacy,
Turkey and China. Both these Asiatic pow
ers have given way, and in both cases a
British fleet has proved the best form of
moral suasion England must share with five
other powers the credit of bringing the Turk
to his knees She is, however the one who
has put most heart into the business and
also the one who put her ships in motion
The sultan might well have lain awake
o. nights listening for the thunder Of Brit
ish guns from that British fleet at Lemnos
He has accepted the utimatum Of the DOW
ers, and signed the decree pledging him to
reforms in Armenia. He does 1t in a shut
fling way, but he does it. II 1t saves his
Mussulman pride to announce that he is
about to institute reforms for all parts of his
empire and all classes of his people, begin
ming with Anatolia, no great harm is done
The real difficulty will begin with the exc
cution of these promises, and especially with
an effective Christian supervision Matters
in China go more simply. The Chinese, like
the Turk, know no argument but force, They
are ordinarily as dilatory as the Turk or
more so, but on mere question of cutting
off the heads of eighteen Cinnamon of low
caste they can proceed promptly enough What
is really important is that the vigor Of Lord
Salisbury has made every European life in
China safe, and has restored much of the
prestige of which recent events had deprived
England in the east.
GEORGE W. SMALLEY.