Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-11-28
Possible Outcome Of Chinese Question.

The dispatches of Saturday told the
country that American troops had been
landed in China from the warship Bos-
ton, upon request of the American con-
sui, to guard the consulate, and the
| Boston was on hand ready for any
emergency. The dispatches also init
mated hat the European powers We're
ready to take advantage of the uncer-
tain condition of the Chinese situation,
and make a coup d'etat. What that coup
d'etat means. every intelligent reader
of Asiatic politics has an idea, and that
idea is that the great powers are pre-
pairing for a ommon descent upon the
| Chinese empire to carve it up among
themselves, and end the national exist
ence of an empire that has existed in
it's integrity for the last four thousand
years. if no longer. That Admiral
Dewey has his eyes open to impending
probabilities is very evident, n when
the time comes for carving up the China
ese dragon, if the interests of the Uni
ted States are threatened, the admiral
may be relied upon to see that the Uni
ted States is not left. 1t may be a very
elastic use of ones imaginative powers,
to think of the United States command
err finding a pretext for the seizure of
Pekin, and raising there the United
States flag. But stranger things have
happened, and if good reasons should
occur, there are but few Americana
who would doubt Admiral Dewey's
readiness and ability to do the proper
thing even to taking possession of the
great city of Pekin, and establishing
there an American protectorate.
The reactionary course of the empress
doWager has made more possible than
ever, the seizure of the Chinese empire
by the great powers. The deposed en-
peror is a man of progressive ideas. He
is reported as having donned European
clothing, having suit off his queue, and
determined to cast aside the fantastic
ideas of four thousand years ago for
more modern policies and purposes.
But hat pre-eminent daughter of Con-
fucius, the empress dowager, would
have none of it, and selling the reins of
government herself, cast the young and
modern prince aside, and would set the
| empire back to the policies that obtain
ed when the Chinese wall was built.
Such a stand Is at the present stage of
the worlds enlightenments manifestly
impossible, and the failure of the emp-
ress to realize this, promises to result in
not only her own downfall, but the de-
struction of China as a nation. When
the English appeared on the coast of
Burmah, in the ~forties, the Burmese
| emperor imagined he could with his an
tiquated armament beat back the civil+
lied invaders. But his immense hosts
were destroyed, Rangoon was lombard
ed into submission in very short order,
and the British Burmah of today is the
satisfactory result. The hosts of central
Asia have proven themselves aver mad
| equate to halt the advance of the Rus
sian and English %conquerors, and in
| fact wherever the hand of civilization
has been laid on Asiatic territory, the
local people have been forced to yield.
That is the natural order of events, and
no other outcome is possible.
1t may be just as well that the frant-
ic calls of the Colorado and Utah troops
to be brought home and mustered out,
have not been needed, and it may be
just as well that 5000 additional troops
have been sent from San Francisco to
Manila, which is but a short distance,
less than a days sail, from the Chinese
coast. With the European nations
waiting only for the barest excuse to
make a spring at the throat of the yell
low dragon, there is no telling what
may happen;a and the intelligence that
Admiral Dewey is closely watching
American interests, may mean a great
deal more than what the casual reading
of these words would indicate. The
city Of Pekin as a part and parcel Of