The National tribune., 1898-03-31
LAND OF THE HEATHER CHINEE ;.
The Grab Game I'm the Orient-The Interest
OF the United States Therein.

The Cabinets Of the great powers are
still eyclag each other and China closely
and the great wonder to all who watch the
zap oi the world with interest is. What
part will the United States play in this
great gaEie OF The rowerS?
II ssa started il by building her great
Trans Siberian railway, obtaining from the
Celestial Emperor the privilege OF crossing
Mantchooria and a terminal station on the
coast. This railroad will be completed IN
about 1908, and will have its Chinese privi-
lcrcS-inc!uding this port on the sea OF
Jtpan-for 80 years, at The end of which
time so the agreement goes now the rail
way is ia be" one the property OF the
Chinese Emperor If that power still exists.
This arrangement seems better for the
Chinese than is likely to be realized, as
anyone witt, one eye shut can see tOr old
Russia Wont give up her precious railroad
and port so easily when the time comes.
During the building of this railway the
Russian soldiers engineers, labOrerS and
officials buy and sell with the Chinese,
make their homes and have their pleas
ures in the Chinese towns and fly their
tags with the Chinese dragons. The
Chinese themselves, the people, take
kindly to this classification of Mant
chooria." So much for what Russia is
actually doing.
Now Germany has seized the port Kiao-
chau because of certain missionaries mas
when Emperor William-Queen Victoria s
cratic grandson-breaks out, and now she
begins to protest mildly-toO mildly for
some sta!wart Britons, who cry for more
vigorous foreign policy
France comes and claims" various
positions in southeastern China-the
Island Of Hainan and Il part OF the nearby
northumberland again England is touched
to the quick, for on the Chinese edge of her
Bu!niah is Yunnan-a province which
England has always had her heart set
upon. Kwangtung, also, coast province
a little north Of opposite the island Hainan,
has seemed to the British TO have been set
apart by Providence to be the care and
interest Of Her Majesty, and If the French
thnl. of including this in their claim Eng
land will have to resent il.
kwangtung is the prOvince-the main
land-near which is situated Hong Kong,
the great English market in the Orient.
England cannot afford to have this port
closed, and indeed the closing of this mar
ket or the interruption or hlndrance OF its
business would be serious blow to the
commercial affairs of the world.
And so we see old China thus being
parcelled out in the imagination OF Cabi-
nets. We see Russia slowly getting there"
and we hear England while she is solemn1y
praying for the integrity OF the Empire,
planning for certain fat slices for her own
in case the Empire should be broken up
We hear, see or know nothing OF what his
Celestial Highness the Emperor OF China
himself is thinking of it ALL
The United States has very important
in the Chinese trade, and at this |
moment it should be our policy to give at |
least moral support to the British demand |
that the Chinese ports shall continue to |
open to the trade of the world, in |
st6ad of certain ones being seized and |
closed to all trade except with their cap |
tors.