The San Francisco call., 1898-01-12
Result Of a Secret Treaty NeqO- tiated With the Feeble
 King.
YOUNG JAPAN WANTS WAR
Sooner or Later Public Opinion Will Carry the old Statesmen of
 Their Feet
Special Dispatch to the Call.

SEATTLE. Jan. 1.-The noted poli- tician and business man, Hon. J. Sloat Fassett of New York, was in this city for a few days prior to his return this evening to his Eastern home. For more than two months MT. Fassett has been in the Orient returning to the Pacific Coast on New Years eve.
 To-day he expressed the opinion that Russias present attitude in Korea is the result of a secret treaty which was negotiated between Korea and Russia after the tragic death of the Queen of Korea
 Continuing MT Fassett said: Rus Sa's attitude in Korea and the Orient has been much misunderstood, though I am free to say the general Oriental situation is, in the main, correctly re- ported here. l. is rather remarkable that the news is correct, when one con sders the average IT eagerness and dis tortion of cable news from the Orient But Russia's present movements in Korea do not mark any sudden aggres- sion on her part. They are the result of a secret treaty that was negotiated between Korea and Russia at the time of the Queens death.
 Japan oVerreached herself No re- SponSible statesman in Japan will un- dertake to deny that when the Queen was murdered and burned. the palace was held by Japanese guards. while the Japanese minister in charge was a man whose war experience had accustomed him to the hardest measures At any rate the King of Korea, alarmed and terrified, sought refuge in the Russian embassy, and it was while he was there a secret treaty was negotiated between Korea and Russia, by which Russia virtually agreed to assume a protector ate over the peninsula. in return for which she was to have control of the Korean purse, and sword. It is in ac- cordance with this treaty that Russia has taken up her present position in Korea. It Is in accordance with this treaty that she requested the resigna- ton and withdrawal of MT. McLeavy Brown. who had charge of the customs.
 You will understand, of course, that Russia is seeking a southern terminus for her great tranScOntinental railway, work on which is still being vigorously pushed. She does not propose that that great line shall end in a snOwbank. The position which she has taken up at Kinchau, six miles in the rear of Port Arthur, is an important one from a strategic point of view. It is far more llldl NJfi many DOSilloH dl Kiaochau. The latter station Is rem dered of comparatively little value to Germany from the fact that she has no coaling station nearer the Asiatic coast than the Baltic.
 II feel sure that it is only a question of time when China with her vast ter ritory and her 400. GOO 0OO of people will go to pieces. In fact, she is already in pieces. She has never been a homo geneous nation. The people of the various sections, north, south east and west neither understand nor like one another
 China is at present a heterogeneous agglomeration of provinces, without any central government and without any centralizing affinity. In time there will be a new assortment of the mem bers of this great body. What the ap- portionment among the European na- tions will be I cannot undertake to prophecy. but when the apportionment Is once made there will be great com mercial development in the East There will then be a feeling of security such as cannot possibly be had under pres ent conditions.
 ''The plain truth is the idea that China was a great national humbug and one of the results of .he Japan- China war was the exposure of that humbug to the world. For centuries tnlna. almost without the Semblance of vital national life, had outer-awed the Orient completely, and had even cast her long. slanting shadow across the council chambers of European statesmen and diplOmatists But she was merely a big balloon. Japan pune tured the balloon and all the world has since been wondering that such po litical fetish was suffered to exist so long.
 As to Japan. I am inclined to think that sooner or later. possibly against the best judgment of her best states men. she will be forced into war in order to preserve her national intep rity and unity. She is just now in a critical condition.
 For the third time the Emperor has been compelled to dissolve the Ma tional Diet The tremendous war in demnity which was exacted of China was spent in various national improve mentS, such as the increase of the navy, fertilization of naval forts. rail- way and other internal works. Rut these measures are now in turn becOn1 ing sources of expense. They must be kept up, and to keep them up costs vast sums of money. With them on her hands Japan is like the man in the old song who had bought an ele- phant.
 Meanwhile. Japan has gone on a gold basis. The young Japan. progress sive even to fault. perhaps I should say aggressive, is thirSting for war and sooner or later I am inclined to think will get it. Of course the elder statesmen. like Ito and Okuma. know better; but they will he simply over whelmed by the pressure of general