New-York tribune., 1900-08-19


the peculiar conditions of Asiatic warfare, ac-
customed to the climate and to all the strange
wiles of Oriental foe, will naturally resent
dictation coming from German commanders
whose knowledge of the art of war has been
derived exclusively from that obtained Euro
pean battlefelds, real and mimic In fact, the
two schools of war-that is to say, the Oriental
and the EurOpean-are Numerically opposed
to each other that it is impossible that their re-
spective exponents should not become involved
ir more or less bitter conflict
Add to this the fact that the political aims
and ambitions of the various foreign Powers in
China are by no means in unison; that Russia
suspects Japan to such an extent as to insist
upon limiting the number of troops which she is
! to be permitted to disembark the mainland;
that Japan, on her side, is determined to resist
Russia's avowed designs upon Corea and Man
churia; that Germany and France are opposed
! to any English action in the Yangtse- Kiang
Valley, and even threaten to prevent by force
! the landing of English troops at Shanghai, and
| that both the United States and England are
committed to the open door policy, and to resist
! ance of Germanys openly announced resolve to
| secure territorial compensation for the murder
! of her envoy at Pekng, and you appreciate
! how. with all these international jealOusies and
suspicious on the part of the various foreign
Powers in China, there is but small prospect of
| any loyal concert of action either diplomatic
military.
! INSTANCES OF FORMER ALLIANCES.
! I have no intention Of boring the reader with
any long historical disquisition in order to
/ demonstrate the fact that joint military oper-
ations by troops of different natonalites al
most inevitably result in differences, and even
! open conflicts. calculated to interfere with the
! success of the operations Before the Turko-
! Russian War of 1877 had been brought to an
! end the Rumarans were to such an extent at
| dageers drawn with their Russian allies that
| they had to withdraw from the field, and were
almost on the verge of attacking the Cars
army in the rear. The quarrels between the
| Prussian and Austrian commanders of the allied
army in Denmark in 1864 largely contributed to
the war between Prussia and Germany eighteen
months later The bitterness which even to this
day prevails between France and Italy dates
| from the war of 1859, when the Italian COM
manders openly denounced Napoleon III and
their French allies having betrayed them by
agreeing to the peace of Vafranca with
Austria in the face of their opposition and in de-
hance of French pledges If the Crmean War
was prolonged for year beyond the time needed
| for its conduct to a successful close it was en-
tirely due to the almost uninterrupted success
sion of quarrels between the French and Eng
lsh commanders of the allied army as any one
may gather who takes the trouble to refer to the
pages of the remarkable history of the
Crimean War by Kinglake. pages that are
/ full Of the description of the difficulty of
the Anglo-French generals to agree upon any
kind of joint action against the Russians The
! first Napoleon almost able to convert the
battles of Quatre Bras and Waterloo from de-
| feats into glorious victories for the French
owing to the differences between the Duke of
! Wellington and General Bucher. and it is on
! record that the Duke was subsequently obliged
to threaten armed action against the Prussfans
when the latter announced their determination
during the occupation of Paris by the allies to
blow up the fine Jena bridge and to destroy a
number of monuments adOrning the French cap
ital In fact, Prussian engineers were already
at work mining the bridge, by Blucher's drec-
ton, when English regiment appeared upon
the scene and drove them away. The Duke of
Wellington in supreme command of the
allied army of occupation in Paris, but so diff
cult did he find it to secure obedience to his or
! ders the part of the Germans and the Rus
slams that he ultimately informed the King Of
Prussia and the Car that he would be Obliged
to withdraw the English army from Paris and
| to resign the supreme command of the allied
forces unless they recalled Blticher and the Rus
sian commander. His demands were complied
with and Butcher sent back to Germany in
quasi disgrace, after having been actually sub
! jected to the ignominy of a threat of being
/ -4;.Yt-