Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-10-01
FRIENDLY MEDIATION
Possible Interference in the
Far East Again Discussed.
GERMANY SUGGESTED
BUT IT Is NOT LIKELY THE EN-
PRE- WILL ACT.
Once Before Burned Her Fingers by q
Friendly Interest-France and Eng
land Barred by Alliances.

Copyright by the Publishers Clearing Company
The question of mediation between Rus
STA and Japan has been preached again py
the London Times. Two eminent French
statesmen. MN. Delanesseau ana Jean
Dupuy, members of the defunct Waidech-
Rousseau cabinet. are said to nave sus-
gested this time that friendly meolatioh
should not be offered by England OF
France the allies of the respective peAis-7
erents, who, in their turn, recently con-
cluded friendly compact ana econohiie
alliance, but by the United States or Ger
many, "by Germany better even than the
United States
According to the respective treaties ce-
tween Russia and France on tne ohe ha LIZ
and between England and Japan on inc
other the understanding was that II one VI
the contracting powers were attacheo W
two hostile powers, the other ally must
enter upOn the contest The silent under-
standing was thus that in the case be-
tween two single powers the ally was TO
preserve friendly neutrality. men
France concluded her alliance with RUSSIA,
her hope was unooupleuiy ina - .." 80
would assist her in reconquering her Two
lost provinces-Alsace and Lorraine. rus
sia with that realism of her Polcy Whlch
is peculiar to her, understood the allia'ce
Germany from making an attack upon
France, an attack that was never lntenoeo,
and prevent France as well from some
step against Germany that might entangie
her ally. Meanwhile she used the wealth.
and immense resources or France 1or the
development of her own Industries, mill
tary and naval equipment, her mines, her
railway system. French gold loaned and
invested in Russia amounts to the enor-
nous sum of more than the double OF her
war contribution to Germany In ISL
Purpose of England's Alliance.
f1n Rnc n
power, and in constant fear for her Indian
empire sought the alliance of Japan, in
order to entangle Russia in the direction of
the far east Japan, however, used Great
Britain's alliance only to cover her rear
against a second aggressor, this time
France, in the struggle which she foresaw
as inevitable, when Russia had once in
trenched in Manchuria and Korea to stay.
Both France and England began to realize
after the outbreak of the war, in sight OF
the overwhelming naval and military SUI
periority of Japan that there was nothing
to gain for either of them, and that the
wisest thing for them to do would be TO
live in political and economic amity, and
derive as much comfort from the war as
possible France is greatly interested that
Russia should not be crippled and bank
rupted to that extent as to render her I'M
able to pay back her immense debt to
France. Great Britain sees for century to
come her Indian possessions secure SO far
as Russia is concerned, but learns to her
dismay that through the overwhelming
power of Japan her days in the far
east will be numbered also. Englands
hope of the acquisition of the Yang-tse val
ley, which she has carved out for herself, Will
be irretrievably lost, and Wei-hai-wei Is
hers only during good behavior. All TINS
accounts sufficiently for the recognition of
English and French statesmen that their
respective countries are not the proper
agents for mediation.
So there remains the United States or
Germany. Germany better even than the
United States" AS to the United States, it
is impossible to believe that its government
would deviate from it's traditional policy of
non-interference with the affairs of other
countries. The recognition OF the Monroe
doctrine as a vital policy of national i'm
port has forced the United States govern
ment under President Cleveland, and again
under President Roosevelt, to call halt to
| European aggression in Venezuela, but be-
yond this hemisphere the United States
government would certainly not go. Ameri-
can resentment at British interference in
the civil war is unforgotten. The very sug-
gestion of friendly mediation by Euro
pean powers in the Spanish war was ener-
getically refused. This suggestion was in
deed offered through their ambassadors at
Washington, but was at once declined by
President Mckinley. The suggestion of a
stronger representation offered by Ambas-
sador Pauncefote, of course. under orders
of the foreign office. was quashed even be-
fore 1t reached the President of the United
States. This action became even more men,
orable after the war, when its initiative was
imputed by British semi-official sources to
the German ambassador, Won Holleben, and
as energetically by the German govern
ment's very unusual procedure of publish
ing the diplomatic correspondence between
the ambassador and the chancellor of the
German empire. Even the marginals of En-
peror William to the official correspondence
proving incontestibly that Germany had in
no way concocted plan to thwart America
were revealed. so great was the effort to
escape the odium of such step, namely
the Intervention or mediation in the Ameri-