Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1900-06-10

! Chinese Empire. Japan and the United
| States nave also made ready for the col
| lapse of the Manchu dynasty.
/ The whole world will feel the shock of
the colossal events which are impending
in Asia. and the spray OF missionary blood
which has set fleets and troops in motion
! toward Tien-Tsin is but the first signal
of a struggle that will probably involve
every important nation.
This assembling of war ships in the Gulf
OF Pe-chi-li is not an accident. 1t is part
| of a plan matured long ago.. 1t is the
and her four hundred million inhabitants
among the great powers.
Every important statesman in Europe
| has predicted that the political roof Of
Asia would crash in this year or next
year, and that the first outbreak against
| Christian missionaries would set the pro-
| cesses Of dissolution in motion.
The thing that is about to happen will
change the map of the world. 1t may
overturn more than one Kingdom.
I During my stay in China last year 1
| learned enough TO know that civilized
Europe had officially decreed the death of
the empire. And when l reached Europe
l found that the American Ambassadors
in the great capitals had been instructed
by Secretary Hay to secure from the gov
rnment TO which they were accredited
definite pledges that, in the event of the
breaking up of China, the open door"
policy would hold in all new territory ac-
CURED by them. 1t was we'll understood
that this agreement between the powers
of the world. secured through the efforts
OF the United States, was made necessary
by unmistakeable evidence thai China
was powerless to resist the ~aIl-engulfing
movements of Russia.
The fall OF Poland gave the Car a win
dow looking out on Europe. Then began
the Russian movement toward Constan-
tinople. The Black Sea was to be the
base of a great Russian fleet. This move
ment was checked by England, and the
Triple Alliance, formed under the presi-
dency of the German Emperor, has ever
since resisted the efforts of Pan-SIavism
to force a military outlet to the Mediter-
ranean.
Russia turned her face from irnpreg-
nable Europe to the Far East. Her
engineers planned the Siberian Railway, a
steam highway six thousand miles long.
This was to give Russia the outlet in the
Pacific that had ben denied her in Europe.
Then came the C-hino-Japanese war.
Japan drove the Chinese army out of
Corea, and an army corps. under Field
Marshal Yamagata, occupied the hermit
peninsula. Japan crossed the Yellow Sea
and invaded Manchuria. Twenty-three
thousand Japanese soldiers, under Field
Marshal Oyama, conquered an empire of
four hundred millions.
1t is true that the Japanese did not go
beyond Port Arthur, Wei-Ha-Wei and
Tien-Chwang, but there is no doubt that
Oyama's compact little invading force
could have marched from one end of the
Chinese Empire to the other without
meeting effective opposition. I accom-
panied the Field Marshal and saw every
where complete and unmistakable evil
dence of the military impotency of China
The treaty Of Shimonoseki gave a pro-
vince of Manchuria. including the power
fully fortified harbors of Port Arthur and
Talien-Wan, to Japan. Russia, backed
by France and Germany, forced Japan
to waive these territorial rights on the
Chinese mainland.
Then Russia moved swiftly. BY sup
porting the Emperor of Corea against the
rough domination of the apanese the
Cars influence became supreme in Corea,
which adjoins Manchuria, and will fur
nish a seaport termination for the Siber-
ian railway-a laval base, free from ice
in winter weather. Russia guaranteed
and partly furnished, the money for the
heavy war indemnity exacted by Japan,
and Tins apatIira1 . hOII on Cbsao D.
sently the world was astonished bv the
news that China had coded, or leased for
n~inety-nine y~ears-virtIally a sale-Talie n
Wan ana Port Arthur, with it's great dry
dock for battle ships.
The meaning of the Siberian railway
dawned on the mind of Europe. Russian
diplomacy was t~ireless, resistless. China
yielded to Russia the right to build a
railway from the main Siberian line down
through Manchuria to Port Arthur. And
now Russia poured thousands of her SOL
diers-under the thin pretense that they
were railway police-into Manchuria.
To-day Manchuria is in effect a Rus
sian province. Inside of a year or
eighteen months the great Siberian rail-
way. which runs across the top of Asia,
with spurs touching Persia, Northern
India and China. will be completed.
Russia has something like twenty mill
ions of men capable of bearing arms.
She can send a million soldiers along the
line of the Siberian r~ailway-two thousand
miles away from the guns of British war
ships. She can concentrate troops and
war ships in Port Arthur and Tallen-Wan,
within close striking distance of Pekin
and Tien-Tsin. Unless the rest of the
world intervenes she can seize India or
China and soon be in a position to menace
all Europe.
China is hopeless. Her Tsung-li-Yamen
Is filed with doddering old Mandarins in
tent upon blackmail and careless of the
public interests. There is no national SEN
timent, practically no army or navy, and
no scheme of defence, external or inter-
nal. 1t is the past passively resisting the
present and the future. The young En-
peror is either dead or a prisoner. and
the ruthless Empress wields whatever
power she can.
All is confusion. corruption and decay
in hin Strong European statesmen
have attempted to save her by means of
internal reforms, but they have had to
give up the Impossible task. The Chinese
reformer, Kung Yu Wei-a really enlight-
ened and broad-minded statesman-for a
few days got control of the Chinese
throne, when the young Emperor assumed
power. He began to apply modern prin-
/ rfniac 70 GNhf1N~n -,1lll--- l.. a. $780,