New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-03-04
RrssTA,s WAY IN ASIA.

Prince Ukhtomsky, the Editor of the 81
Petersburg "ViedOmosti," has assured the worlu
that Russia has made her way thus lar IN the
conquest of Asia not by force, but by love
Power lies not in strength, but in love- ne
tells US has been her motto. We may Wen De
lieve in his sincerity. We may, indeed we must
accent his statement as largely true. Russia Is
an Asian power. She came out OF Asia at the
beginning. and in re-entering that continent she
is returning TO her own again Naturally, she
finds affinity with many Asian tribes and PEG
niles and her way with them Is one OF love.
Moreover. she is seeking and finding on the
vast and fertile plains of Siberia better homes
for her overcrowded peasantry, where they hVe
better lives and suffer less oppression IMAM III
European Russia; and that also is work OF
love We shall not easily give Russia too much
credit for what she has done and is doing IN
Asia. north Of the Amoor and the mountains OF
Altai.
But Prince Ukhtomsky would scarcely MAIN
tain that Russias way in Asia has always
and everywhere been thus. Her wars Win the
Tcherkesscs and the tribes Of Turan were
marked with force alone. There was little love
shown at Khiva and Serv and Samarkahu'
when Russian soldiers pitchforhed hollahs
from their minarets for sheer lust Of torture
and slaughter. The reign Of love was not
apparent at Blagovestchenk, when Cossacks
clicked the AMOR with bodies Of butchered
women and children. Nor is it any more the
heart of love than the hand-and the mailed
fstr-of strength that has been moving for
ward for the partitioning Of China and the spo-
liation of COrea.
The fact is. we must recognize the racial dis
tinctions that exist I'm Asia and that make that
great continent even more heterogeneous than
Europe itself. We must grant natural ann
ity between the Russians on the one hand and
Ia
the other But there is a distinction with diff
ference between those tribes and the Chinese
and Japanese However close together or far
anart they NAV be ethnologically, a great gulf
divides the Chinaman from the Monaghan. Inc
luminosity between Roman and Gaul was slight
compared with that which the men OF HUI
Nam cherish against Mongollans and Man
churians and the very fact that these latter
largely fraternize with Russians Is sufficient
to bring upon the Russians the hatred OF the
true Chinese.
We must realize, then, that there Is limit
70 Russia's progress by means Of love in Asia,
and that that limit is reached when she comes
into contact with China proper and with Japan
70 say nothing Of Persia, Afghanistan and
India. She has occupied Siberia benevolenuy.
She may do the same with much or Mongona'
north OF the great desert. But the further pur-
suit Of her conQuests, on the shores OF the 1el-
low Sea and the Sea of japan, must be pro
NOTED, II at all, by force, and force alone 1t
will be conquest, militant and forcibie ana
nothing else; and there is nothing to be gained
by imagining it to be anything else. The men,
DRY OF her works OF love and peace In Siberia
cannot avail To make her force in Manchurln
seem anything else than force. Neither VIII the
force she now employs destroy the recollection
and the credit Of her former peaceful conquests.
Each part Of her way I'm Asia VIII be seen ana
,udced according 10 its own individual merits.