Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-12-05
IMPORTANT To JAPAN
Is the Reduction Of the Port
Arthur DefeDses.
A CONSTANT MENACE
IF coHTRoLLxD BY A NATION
HOSTILE 10 NIPPON.
The Master of That Ease n this Master
Of the Yellow ssa-Japsnese
Impatfence.

Adachi kfnnosuke, In the Americas Monthly Review
or Reviews.
In 1881, and in the year that followed 1t,
the French government took a great deal
OF trouble and interest in certain modest
harbor. which they found left peacefully
to a Chinese fishing village and sleeping at
3s degrees Al minutes and 50 seconds north
latitude, and 121 degrees Is minutes and II
seconds east longitude. The harbor was
small. Running from east to west It meas
ured the distance of about two miles, and
not quite one mile wide. 1t was situated ait
the end of the Liao-tung peninsula. In
those days few even among the statesmen
of Nippon saw in that toe Of the Liao-tung
"a dagger-point aimed at the very heart of
our country. As If the harbor were not
small enough as 1t is. nature has divided it
into two sections, the east and west har-
bors. AS IL these were not trials quite
enough, the water of the harbor was found
to be very shallow. In the east harbor
there is very small space in which a large
vessel could find itself comfortable Ac-
cordfng to the examination of a foreign adj
wiser to China, the bottom of the harbOr
Is covered with clayey mud breaking here
and there into sandy bottoms containing
large quantity of shells. The entrance to
this harbor was scarcely three hundred
yards In width. As yea enter it, Golden
and to the left is the Tigers Tail.
Even in those days. however, it was not
difficult to see how much heaven had done
for this modest harbor. The screen of hill
ranges enveloped it completely from the
winds of the Pe-chi-h, and from human
foes from everywhere Even to the casual
eye, it was evident that this little harbOr
was nature-built naval base China for
titled it with German skill and German
guns Even in the days of the Chino-Nip-
pom war, German engineers were saying
that it was impregnable. Certainly it COM
manded the entrance to the Gulf of Pc
chilli. IT you wished to drive a. fang into
the throat of Pekin you had only to occupy
this base with a comparatively small fleet.
And the statesmen of Nippon were not
slow In seeing that the master of Port Ar
thur is the master of the Yellow sea. In
the hands of hostile and competent power
it Is yeritable dagger threatening the
very vitals of our land, which is within
thirty-edd hours of hostile fleet In its
harbor.
Coded and Receded.
At the close of the Chino-Nippon war,
at Shimonoseki, in front of Marquis Ito,
representing his majesty. the Emperor of
Nippon, Ii Hung Chang, representing his
country, placed his seal to document
which ceded to us Port Arthur and the
southern end of the Liao-tung peninsula.
You know as well as 1 do that even while
the ink was hardly dry upon the famous
Shimonoseki treaty, the triple combination
of European powers-of Russia, Germany
and France-advised US, through a polite
joint note and extensive naval demonstra-
lions of the combined fleet of the three
powers in the Gulf of Pe-chi-li. to recon-
slider a certain portion of the Shimono-
seki treaty and retrocede to China the
Lao -tung peninsula. with Port Arthur at
the end of it. You know as well as 1 do
that when Marquis Ito and his wise
friends saw the wisdom of hearkening
unto the mailed advice of these three
Christian nations, and when he gagged
the press and returned to China the Lao
tung peninsula and Port Arthur, more
than 100 soldiers who had fought in Man.
as the blacklist stain on our national
honor, as an unparalleled humiliation OF
a nation which had never before been hu-
inflated by foreign power. They wished