The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-08-27
RECENT PUBLICATIONS.
Overland to China, an Important and
Timely Volume.

Overland to China, an Important and
Timely Volume.
The Chinese problem is the greatest in
ternational question that has come before
the world in many years. Its vexed phases
are fraught with dire possibilities. What
will Russia do? Will Germany and France
support the Cars ambitious plans? Will
Britain and Japan contest the dismemher-
ment of the Chinese empire? Will the
United States withdraw its troops and idly
watch the other powers apportion the coun-
try among themselves? These are some of
the queries that the diplomats have been
putting to each other in the past week. No
reader of current events, no one who has
followed the changes made in the map of
Asia in the last quarter of a century,
doubts that the time is fast approaching
when the whole of the largest continent in
the world will be divided among the Euro
pean nations. Britain and Russia now rule
almost half of the continent. Germany and
france nave grabbed small slices and are
coveting more. Russia owns all Siberia, is
now annexing Manchuria and has designs
on all China down to the Yang-Tse valley.
Britain, which possesses all India and two
important seaports on the coast of China
and has more commercial interests at stake
than any other power, would not be averse
to adding the rich Yang-Tse valley to her
possessions, but will be forced to fight to
get it.
All this is made clear in Archibald r.
Colquhoun's timely book, Overland to
China" a companion volume to China in
Transformation by the same author. Mr..
Colo1houp iS n racnUnizad aufhOriry on
Chinese matters. He has held responsible
positions under the British government,
has lived in China and traversed Siberia.
AS correspondent of the London Times he
was noted as a keen observer, and his
books show evidence of his newspaper
training. AS an attache of the British le-
CATION in Picking he had opportunities to
learn a great deal about Chinese statecraft
and Russian i%ntrigues, and he is. therefore,
qualified to write truthfully on several
phases of the Chinese question which other
authors have not been able properly to
cover.
Mr.. Colquhoun begins with a history of
the conquest of eastern Siberia by Russia,
the gradual extension of Russian influence
to the Pacific and Arctic coasts, the Occu-
patton of the territory and the development
20 -
struction of the great Transslberian-Man-
churian Railway Is described. Three chap
tiers are devoted TO "Peking-Past and
Present" three to Manchuria, two TO east
ern Mongolia, two to the Yang-Tse valley,
two TO southwest China and one to Ton
quin. Customs and characteristics OF the
various peoples are described as well as
political conditions and poSSlDllteS.
Though an Engiishman, the writer Is Sc
we're In condemning his government for per-
hitting Russia to get the upper hand IN
China. In the light of recent happenings
the accuracy of his predictions seems re-
m~arkable. He says:
I'm contact with foreign powers by land
and sea the Chinese government has lost
its supremacy, its vitality, the ability to
defend its possessions. Abandoning bit by
bit the territory on its land frontiers north
and south, and on its seaboard, internal
China is rapidly passing into anarchy.
When, in 1885, Japan shattered the naval
and military defenseS of the empire, the
extremity of China was the opportunity for
certain foreign powers, and was promptly
utilized. Russia appropriated the great ter
Iitory of Manchuria will it's hundreds of
miles of seaboard and its ice-free ports.
magnificent resources, and fine hardy popu-
lation. Germany took kiau-Cha and as
Sumed an exclusive control of the province
of Shan-Tung with its valuable minerals
and fine people. Russia then acquired the
Liao-Tung peninsula, with Port Arthur,
Talien-Wan, and other ports; Great Britain
| obtained Wei-Hai-Wei and Kaw-Lung;
France acquired Important territorial and
| economic rights Ia the south, with per-
mission to penetrate southwest China by a
railway which is to effect junction on the
| Upper Yang-Tse with railways advancing
from the Russian territory in the north;
! Japan has her eye on Fu-Kien province,
facing FOrmoSa; even Italy to
PROVINCES, especially in the Yang-Tse re-
giQn, are seething wit revolt, which meets
with hardly any opposition. Nominally still
alive and in full operation, the organism
of the Chinese government is hardly percep-
tible, and is unable to cope with foreign
aggressions, barely sufficing to keep in re-
straint the three hundred and fifty millions
OF its own people. TIL most cursory glance
at any map, showing the railway schemes
and spheres of interest, of influence, OF
whatever they may be called, of foreign
powers, must Shatter any belief in a re-
sponsible or organic government in China,
| The trail Of the foreigner is on the land
from north to south. The western powers
lave come to stay, and the extension of the
present spheres is merely a matter of time
Internally, the forces making for rebellion
en- a grand scale are daily gaining strength
and once they realize that no power exists
to suppress them, will usurp in vast re.
| gions the office of government. In a word
| China is being dismembered and broker
up"
In summing up his conclusions Mr.
| Colquhoun says: How to oppose by means
of diplomacy, and, If necessary, by force
of arms, the policy of Russia and France
many-that is the problem which faces
| Britain and must be of immense conse-
quence to the United States. Both countries
are not only behindhand in all special, es
sential information, but they have been in.
different where interest and enthusiasm
alone can move their governments which
are still without any consistent plan
. There is no Disgusting the fact thar
a period of intense and increasing energy
is about to begin and must be met by pre-
paredness to be ready for a conflict which
is more than probable. 1t is time, therefore
that Britain and the United States SHOULD
interest themselves and decide on som,
common plan"
These remarks are based largely on tn,
idea that the United States will protec
it's enormous trade with the Orient; tina
it will be unwilling to see China parcelet
into spheres of influence" which have n,
open doors.
Maps and Illustrations are features o.
the book. Harper & Bros, New York.
Our Native Trees.