The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-12-21
Edrth-HuDger OF
The Great Powers
From the Philadelphia Press.

From the Philadelphia Press
G7llE 81 'ZURII of the CnineSe port OF
kiao Chau by Germany was orig
lnally credited by the world to The
necessity for sufficient argument
and induccmcnt 10 lead the rclch-
stag to vote the seven year apprOpriul ions
FOR bis German fleet. In due season it
was supposed itwould be surrendered. The
kaiSers speech last week and the re-
Ception Of this act of wantUn aggression
by acquescent Europe put an entirely diff
ferent face both on the seizure Itself and
the kaisers purpose in wanting a pig
fleet Germany has torn a port from
China in sheer lust Of conquest. CHINA is
weak ana Germany is strong. The port
was undcfended. No just cause existed
for aggression much less for war or an
neNation. No warning was given. No
explanation was offered the world. Ger
many wanted the port ana took it, 10
stamp this act of plunder both as part of
his own personal imperial policy and the
settled purpose Of the empire ana mis-
dynasty, the kaiser sends his brother out
i'm command of a new squadron ANA poses
in series of theatrical fareweils in
tended and expected to fiX the attention
Of the world. China, a country which
leaves its defense TO the goodwill of its
neiGhbors, as this country has done only
too much in the past, finds itself with an
important port in foreign hands, COM
handing a fertile province and COntrnl-
ing the approaches to its capital
u
No redress exists. The civilized world
accepts this wanton and brutal act as a
matter of course. The English and Eu-
Iopean papers none of them Criticise this
plunder. All unite cynical!y to say, as the
London Economist docs, that if Germany
can foot the bill Germany is welcome TO
7 fl,f
reached new era of international rob-
berry and plunder, Twenty years ago from
the seizure of Algeria to the treaty of
Berlin no EuI IOpean nation had made any
startling conquest except as Russia had
extended unknown and savage boundaries
| in Central Asia, and even Russia sur
rendered the provinces there claimed by
| China. Since lSIS the world has been par
titioncd, About 100000 square miles of
savage and barbarous ,crritorY in Africa
! have been divided up, OF which England
| has 800 600 ANA France 1900 600. England
| has picked up Burmah and most of BOr-
| nCO and half Il dozen little Indian islands
! France has seized Madagascar, part OF
! Siam AMMAN and Tonquin. Germany has
| seized $4,000 square miles in Africa and
| l0o,l50 in the Pacific, nearly all Of it in the
! twelve years, Even Belgium has taken in
! SG5,4OO square miles in the Congo on a
| colonial speculation in which France has
| a rcvsOnary interest. England has also
! occupied Egypt, and is in a fair way to
| take up l,00DOOO square miles or so on the
! Upper Nile. Half as much has been
! picked up i'm five years on the Niger.
! Lesser posts and places have been seized
in other regions,
In all, taking the world around since
| the treaty of Berlin sO,cnnly asserted
/ that territory should pass only by com
mon action and consent, the European
! countries have "absCrbcd' in the inter
! est of civilization" of consequently l2-
| 100000 square miles. This territory Is
| three times the area of Europe, four times
| the area of the United states without
| Alaska, twice the habtable area of North
| America and greater i'm extent than any
one Of the continents, except Asia. There
has never been such a period of unmiti-
gated loot and plumber since. the tune
three and four centuries ago, when Eu-
rope was carving up the New World.
O.
OF all these acres not one has been
taken in the Western Hemisphere. In
| the Americas, i'm the past thirty years
| France has given up Mexico and arbi'
| trated a disputed boundary with Brazil
| Spain is i'm a death struggle for Cuba
| and England has submitted the Venezue-
| In boundary to arbitration and withdrawn
| her quasi-pTotectorate OF the Mosquito
| coast. Through the vast area Of II, 500,
900 square miles in North and South Am
! erica not port has been occupied" and