New-York tribune., 1905-07-14
GIVEN OVER TO FR1voL1TY.

Meanwhile the de Strives were apparently tent
on enjoying themselves and were given up to
frtvolity. Garden parties, picnics and entertain
ments seemed to up all their time, and. being
in Japan at the time. recall Sir Harry Parkes,
the little redheaded, peppery English Envoy.
peatedly expressing his astonishment that Russia.
which had many able diplomats in her employ,
should have ntrusted her interests in Japan TO so
utterly a frivolous man as de Struve who appar-
emily attached much more Importance to croquet
tournament the collection Of teapots than TO
statecraft
One morning Sir Harry received from the Foreign
Office in London a dispatch which almost ended his
days by a ht of apOplexy. 1t announced TO him
that Russia had quietly accomplished her aim and
had succeeded In completing the surrender of the
entire island OF Saghalien TO herself in exchange
for the absolutely useless Kuriie group, which were
not only Of Importance strategicaTy. politically
or economically but 10 which, moreover, the title
OF Russia was by no means clear. r. ever there
was a one sided agreement it this treaty be-
tween Japan and Russia concerning the possession
OF Saghalien. in which Russia got everything and
Japan less than nothing Sir Harry and the other
foreign envoys at Toxic the additional ruorti-
hcation Of discovering that the negotiations had
been carried and completed. not at st. Peters
burg but in the Japanese capital under their very
noses without their having the slightest inIng
that anything of the kind was in progress and fur
ther investigation revealed the fact that the Jap
anese officials who had brought about the surren-
der Of Saghalen were precisely those very bureau
chiefs OF the Japanese Foreign Office whose friend
ship Baron Rosen had cultivated with so much ef-
feet For at the Gaimusho. as in all other depart-
ments Of foreign affairs. 1t is permanent heads of
bureaus who WELD the real power and s ape the
policy rather than the Secretary OF State or Min
lister. whose tenure of Office is at the best ephem-
eraI.
OF course II was de Struve the Envoy who in the
eyes OF the world had this brilliant dipona+fc
coup But the principal work IN connection with
the affair had been done by Baron Rosen a fact
which de Struve with characteristic generosity was
the first TO admit. 1t Rosen's first diplomatic
laurel wreath, and his reward came in the shape
OF decorations and appointment as full first Sec
retary Of legation instead of a mere acting at
tache- And from that time forth his career IN
the diplomatic service assured ONLY too late
did the Japanese Foreign Office realize its cruel
mistake in thus permitting the friendship Of Rosen
for bureau chiefs and de Strives courtesies and
compliments to them TO bring about a surrender Of
such Importance as that Of Saghalien and there
Is no doubt that but for the fact that European
civilization already beginning in those davs m
make itself felt in Japan the bureau chiefs would
have been invited by their government to atone for
their error in the customary Japanese way by
hara-kir or sepuku, that is to say, by the dfsen-
bowelling process Of suicide Sir Harry Parkes and
the other foreign ENJOYS each got terrible raps
over the knuckles from their respective govern
ments for having permitted such negotiations to be
carried on under their very eyes without knowing
anything about them, and angry was the Eng
lsh Foreign Ofhce that Sir Harry Parkes would
undoubtedly have been shelved had it not been for
his splendid record in China and at the time OF tb
japanese revolution.