New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-12-03
RUSSIA AND JAPAN.

The announcement that Russia am Japan
have come TO an amicable agreement IN respect
10 Corea and Manchuria is credible. 1t mas
seemed TO us for some time that the war talk
in those regions was exaggerated and that Rus
STA especially, conscious of her own weakness,
was striving at least to temporize and to post
pone the threatened day of wrath. Moreover,
as we said only yesterday. the world has heard
from Japan chiefly in the sensational and in
cendiary utterances. while the conservative
counsels and influences have really been by far
the more potent The reported arrangement is
commended TO our credence, too, by its reason
able terms. Briefly stated, Japan is 10 give
Russia a free hand in Manchuria, and Russia is
TO give Japan j free hand in Corea. Each will
therefore get what it wants and what it has
been conteDding for Upon such basis they
surely ought 10 agree.
But we have no notion that such an agree
ment will be permanent. We do not see how
it can be. Russia will not be satisfied with
Manchuria. For one thing, it does not give her
the always open port on the high seas for which
she has so long been cOntending. She thought
il would. That was why she fortified Port Ar
thur and built Dalny But now, to her profound
disgust, she finds that both those ports, as of
course, all other Shng-King ports, are closed
with ice for much of the winter. That is why
she has abandoned her exclusive policy at Port
Arthur and has announced the opening of that
port to the world. The doll is stuffed with saw
dust and she 10 longer prizes it. So she must
push on further in quest of her open port. To
find it she must either go south of the Gulf of
Pe-Chi-LL which would be particularly awk-
ward, with Germany settled in Shan-Tung, or
else must grab Corea. There is another rea-
son why she wants Corea. That is, that the lat
ter breaks the continuity and integrity Of her
coast line. We may recall how Objectionable
il was TO the United States to have its Gulf
coast and its Atlantic coast separated by the
peninsula of Florida in alien hands, and COM
munication between them through the narrow
straits thus dominated by an alien power. Corea
plays TO the Russian coast precisely such part
and Russia wants TO secure it for herself for
the same reasons that impelled us to secure
Florida.
If Japan and Russia thus settle or postpone
their controversy, what of the rest of the world?
Politically speaking, those two powers will
probably reply that it is nobody eIse's business
So far as the United States is concerned that
may be true. This country asks nothing more
than maintenance of its treaty rights and of the
open commercial door. We have no doubt the
door will be opened and kept open In Corea
under japanese control Whether it will in
Manchuria under Russian control there is room
for doubt, though sincerely hope the doubts
will not be justified But, seeing that the Man
churian question involves the treaty rights of
various powers, and does not involve the honor
of Russia or the integrity of the Russian En-
pire, it really seems as though it might we'll be
submitted TO the tribunal at The Hague for adj
judication. 1t is understood that China would
be glad TO have it thus referred, and certainly
Russia the founder of that tribunal, should not
demur TO such proposal