The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-12-04
IMPoSSIBILITY OF PARTITION.

the introduction of the blessings of
civilization a pleasant memory
IMPoSSIBILITY OF PARTITION.
If 1 may venture the opinion, how
ever, prophecies regarding the parti-
ton of China, whether immediate II in
the remote future, must be taken with
a. certain. grain of allowance. In the
first place, how could such a partition
be practically effected? Who would
deliminate the metes and bounds, and
! how would mutual jealousies be recon-
ciled and satisfied? So, also, as re-
! CARDS spheres of influence" except
where the term is used in the broadcast
sense. How can such spheres be de-
termined exactly in a country like
| China and how can infringement, or
! the appearance of infringement, be
! tanned a foothold on Chinese soil will
exercise a certain influence in those
! immediate neighborhoods, no doubt,
but does that necessarily mean thai
all other foreign commerce can be
! rigidly excluded? To buy in the cheap
| est market and to sell in the dearest
! is the soul and essence of successful
trade. Can Chinese, even with the
spheres of influence be compelled to
violate that law? The Chinese, as l
have said before, are a practical people
and good merchants, and it is not likely
that the artificial restraints of g
sphere of influence" would long suf-
flee to force them to do violence to
their instincts as traders.
1t should not be understood from
what precedes that 1 intend to belittle
either the Importance or the signiti-
canoe of the recent movements Of GER
tain European powers regarding China.
To me they appear as ominous as they
doubtless do to others. My only OBJ
ject, as will appear later on. is not
so much to minimize the danger, as to
draw attention to certain considera-
lions which will enable it 20 be met
successfully, should it ever come.
MYSTERIOUS RUSSIAN BEAR.
There is an element of mystery about
Russia's recent course in China. So far
as we know officially, Russia has OBJ
tanned no cession of territory. Her ell
fcials have denied the story OF Sc
cret treaty, and maintain that the only
object Of the Cassini convention was
the grant of a railway concession from
a certain point on the Amoor through
Manchuria to Vladivostock, connecting
with the Siberian line, and shortening
it several hundred miles. This railway
was TO be connected with another
through Manchuria to some seaboard
point, presumably on the Gulf OF Pc
L
joint Russian and Chinese control Sub
sepently, apparently as set-off to
Germany's seizure of Kiao Chou, Rus
STA obtained control of TalienWa and
Port Arthur. Here a curious question
arises: Was Russia aware of Ger
many's intention to seize kiao Chou
before it occurred? The general belief
is that she was, but, on the other hand,
| it has been stated on The highest au-
| thority that Germapy's action was as
much of surprise to Russia as it was
to every one else. The fact is import
ant. if it is fact, because it marks
very definite separation between inter
ests which the world hitherto supposed
were, if not identical, at any rate sup
posed were. if not IDENTICAL at any
rate harmonious.
THE OK AND THE BULL.
Another curious circumstance is the
| following: Only two years after Ger
many and Russia. in company with
France, had forced Japan to re-cede the
Lao Tung peninsula to China, on the
! ground that it was not right for for
eign power to occupy territory controll-
ing the approaches to Pekin and Corea,
| one OF them had Kiao Chou and the
other Port Arthur, the most important
strategic points, as regards the control
of those approaches. This will serve
very well as the Diplomatic version of
the fable of the OK and the bull
The position of Russia in Talien- Wan
and Port Arthur is peculiar. The I'M
derstanding is that the territory has
not been ceded to her absolutely, but
merely the usufruct for ID term of
years. That leaves Chinese ownership
! intact, and, coincidently, the extra ter
/ ritorial rights which foreign nations
have under their treaties with China.
HOW RUSSIT ABSORBS.
To the minds of many intelligent OBJ
servers the problem Of Russia's designs
: presents the most serious feature of the
present situation in China. Manchuria
! is universally conceded to be hers; al
though, as already pointed out, it is
not actually known whether or not She
has received the cession of one foot Of
territory. Nevertheless, the general
| impression remains that she is only bid
ing her time and that she will absorb
one strip of Chinese territory after an
other until she has it all, or all save
what she comedies to her ally, France,
on the south, and something, probably,
to her other ally, Germany. This fore
cast is accurate in one respect, that
is, if we can judge the future by the
past, that is to say, in so far as it rep
resents Russia's advances, as probably
ways been her mode of progression in
her acquisition, of territory in Asia. She
moves toward her chosen goal deiber-
ately, not suddenly or violently, alb
staining from arousing animosities
among the tribes and peoples whom she
brings under her sway, and being care
full even to respect their foibes and
prejudices. 1t is true that her terri
tOrial acquisitions hitherto have con-
sisted largely of vast tracts of country
sparsely inhabited as a eule and it
may be that she Will change her meth
DDS as she approaches the densely in
habited regions of populous China, but
if the past is any criterion of the fu-
ture, no immediate act of aggression
on her part toward China is probable.
| Or, to put it upon even surer ground,
no effective act of aggression is pos
sible just at present, for Russia is not
ready, and cannot be prepared to begin
! this onward march of absorption, adj
mittirg that she contemplates it, until
! the Siberian and the Manchurian rail
| ways are completed, and that will not
| be for some years to come.
In the meantime it is only right and
! just that we should credit her assur-
anees that she has no ultimate designs
against the integrity Of China in what
| she has already done, and no Interior
object beyond the legitimate develop
ment of her territories. Then she on
her part, can have no right to com
plain if other nations, having as valio
an interest as herself in the commercial
and industrial progress of China, dc
what they to safeguard their interests
SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM.
There is one solution Of this question
which would be as advantageous t
China as it would be to every power
having commercial relations with her