The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-03-26
Asks Britain to Interfere With Rus
sia to Stop the Seizure of
Manchurian Territory
JAPANESE ARE READY TO DO BATTLE
Island Nation Is Prepared for Strug-
gle With the Bear-NoW Be
lieVed to Be Inevitable.

LONDON, March 25.-The Chinese min
lst9r, Sir Chih Chen Lo Feng Luh called
at the foreign Office today and urged the
British government to bring pressure
to bear in order to prevent Russia secur-.
ing the necessary signatures for the Man.
cfnrlan agreement. The foreign Office is
still in the dark tonight as to whether
the agreement will be signed or allowed
to elapse when the time expires, March
26 The officials of the japanese legation
are inclined to believe Russia will sue
ceed in getting the necessary signatures.
The situation is still more complicated
owing to the fact, ascertained by a rep
resentatiVe of the Associated Press to-
day that there are two secret treaties,
one of which is to be signed at St
Petersburg, dealing with Russia's mill
tary control of Manchuria and another
to be signed at Pekin dealing with her
civil powers
The Chinese appeals for support have
failed to produce any direct remons-
frances from Great Britain or apparently
from any other power to ST. Petersburg,
fer Russia persistently adhered to her
contention that the secret agreements
concerned no one but herself and China.
On this ground Great Britain's request
for copies of the agreement was abrupt-
ly declined
1t was explained at the foreign office
here that it would be a dangerous and
useless breach of diplomatic procedure
to endeavor to enter upon eXpoStulations
with Russia which would only be based
upon information supplied by the Chi
neSe.
In other words the copies of secret
treaties and alleged notifications of them
recently given to the powers by the
Chinese are worthless documents and
Will remain such until Russia herself
chooses to communicate the text Of the
actual treaties and notifications. In the
absence of the Japanese minister in Lor-
don Baron HayaShia Mr. Matsui, first
secretary of the Japanese legation, who
was interviewed this afternoon by a
representative of the Associated Press,
made d comprehensive statement Of the
issues involved. He said:
SITUATION IS CRITICAL.
tRussia's insistence. China's helpless
ness and the probable victory of Rus
sian diplomacy tomorrow will bring us to
the brink of a dangerous situation in
which none of the powers is so seriously
concerned as japan. Even if the treaties
have been modified as alleged the changes
are so trifiing as to make the documents
thoroughly Objectionable to Japan.
Assuming that China signs the treaties
the United States will protest to Russia
But that is about as far as they will go
and about as much as they will get With
Japan 1t is a matter of fighting.
The question is whether we are to
fight Russia now or to fight her later on
She has no right to Manchuria and if
she secures Manchuria she will be on the
way to securing Korea.
JAPAN READY TO FIGHT.
"Our government, I believe, is seriously
considering the crisis. It's eyes are wide
open and it will not be driven to
precipitate action by Jingoist japan,
which is openly clamoring for war
When it sees that war is unavoidable
it will not hesitate to strike
Japan has no need to be afraid as to
the result. Many reasons are in the
average japanese mind in favor of fore
ing the struggle which must come eventu-