Arizona republican., 1904-01-13
Early Peace or War.

Early PEACE OF "dTs
Dispatches from Toxic yesterday an
nounced the approaching end of the
negotiations with Russia. II will prob
ably be we'll indicated today whether
there will be peace or wlr. The very
hesitation of Japan over the last out
rageous reply from Russia argues
strongly for peace aud she would Ger
tainly have the sympathy of the world
II she should decide for war.
The substance of the Russian reply
is refusal to speak about ManchuIia
and a proposal to divide Corea. This is
knavish. because the refusal by Rus
STA to discuss the future of M1nchu-
ria with Japan is an obvious attempt
Ia retain for Russia. free hand in
that large and promising trading dis
triCt, leaving the manufacturers and
merchants of Japan, the United States.
Great Britain and other countries to
hC.,e Hcr what they will in northern
ChtnG. but with no Russian obligation
of any sort upon which that hope may
rest. The Russian answer is hoggish,
because It takes Manchuria for settled
Russian territory, and offers to go
shar~H with Japan in COrea, where
japan actually possesses serious In
tereSts and Russia does not. The Rus
slim zone In CCrea proposed in the
( Russian answer is evidently dos gned
10 cAtols Japan into the notion that
this onu would be in a. sense a huff
fer district between the Russian and
.JHpa fese jurisdictions, created to s2pa-
Rafe the two powers from immediate
contact with one another, and 50 to
make for peace. This idea, however
Is mere craft, and the clever AMI
q broad minded Yankees" Of the far
east 20 see II, as we'll as everybody
else having knowledge of the situa-
ticn. This proposed Russian zone
rans down miles below the mouth of
the Yalu river on the eastern coast
Of Coyea, and on the western coast
Of. Corea it almost exactly divides in
to two halves the entire seacoast from
VIsdivostock to Port Hamilton, at the
extreme southern end of Corea. TIE
Hussian answer is therefore in fact
an offer to take the head, shoulders
and most of the body of the Corean
peninsula. if Japan will kindly ard
peaceably take the tail end. In other
words. it is a stated scheme whereby
Russia hopes to secure fully half of
Corea for herself-the lest fighting
half where the land is mountainous,
and therefore easily defensible-under
the form of q concilatory proposal,
and without any fighting at all The
only reasonable conjecture as to the
design of this scheme is that Russia
intends to consolidate her mainland
base in Manchuria and northern Co
rea, and thus make ready foc day
when she will pocket the lower half
of the Corean peninsula and dictate
at her ease the terms of national ex-
istence to Japan.
These facts carry their own COM
ment. The stuff and cajolery sent out
from st. Petersburg. for the mystifi-
cation of the world, really illustrate
the actual situation confronting the
gallant and resolute little island empire
of the far east far more than they dis
guise it. In a nutshell, the warlike
prospects in the far cast today en-
body the natural contradiction between
the open door Of fair and legal COM |
merce and the closed door of territorial
exclusiveness and medieval and un-
civilizing restrictions upon trade.
Back of this world question is the
right of Japan to live as ali independ- /
ent nation-a right OF Japan that Rus |
STA neither aGirms nor denies, but !
which Russia, smilingly and unceas-
ingly, is scheming to destroy.