The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-09-03
The New Anglo-Japanese Alliance,

II is now admitted that new treaty
between Great Britain and Japan was
signed in London on August II, and, &C
cording to an unofficial but uncontra-
dicted version, it binds the signatories
To assist each other in the event OF
either being attacked by even a single
Power. The operation Of the compact
Is limited, we understand, to Asia and
the adjacent islands, 30 that, although
Japan would cooperate with Great Brit
ain In the defense Of India, she would
not feel called upon to send troops to
Africa or Europe in the event OF Eng
lands becoming involved in q war in
either Of those Continents.
What Japan gains by the new treaty
is obvious. Even the restricted alliance,
formed in 1901, shielded her from a
renewal in 1904 OF the Russo Franco
German combination to which she sue
cumbed in 1895. In the face of such a
combination, which would have possessed
an irresistible preponderance at sea,
the Japanese warships would have had
to remain in naval fortresses under
penalty Of destruction, and the Island
Empire would have been impotent to
prevent Russia's retention Of Manchuria
and gradual absorption of Corea. Ire
mendous, therefore, Is the debt already
incurred by Japan to England, which,
during the last eighteen months, has said
to France and Germany Hands on u
There is no keensighted and candid
Japanese who does not cordially recog-
nize that the attitude maintained by
England during tho present contest
has given his country an opportunity Of
working out her own salvation. Yet
the service rendered to Japan by the
treaty OF 1901, great as it has proved,
is scarcely comparable with that deriv-
able from the new compact. Had the
latter been In force two years ago the
recent war would never have occurred.
Russia would promptly have carried
out in 1908 her written promise to evacu-
ate Manchuria and would scrupulously
have refrained from that encroachment
on the timber tract stretching along
the Corean bank Of the Yalu River which
provoked Japan to begin hostilities.
The effect Of the new treaty upon Rus
ola will evidently be to cause her to re-
nounce the dream Of eastward expan-
sion, and to stop useless expenditure at
the further end Of Asia. An ice free
port on the Pacific she Is destined never
to acquire; and therefore all tho money
laid out on the eastern half Of the Trans
Siberian Railway has practically been
thrown away. The Arnur River and its
tributaries would suffice In the future,
Is they sufficed few years ago, for all
the communication needed between Lake
Baikal and vladivoetok. which hence
forth will be relegated into a port Of
call for sealers and fishermen. It lie
absurd to suppose that Russia, with
only one naval station. and that open
only in the summer, would attempt to
create fleet in the Pacific which. even
IN conjunction with the fleets Of France
and Germany, could face the united
naval forces Of Great Britain and Japan.
It il incredible that ruble will be de-
voted to such purpose. A navy. Of
course, Russia will need, and In tho
course OF decade or two she may get
enc. But it will not be employed on the
Pacific or in the Indian Ocean. We are
told that in an article which has created
/, sensation In st. Petersburg the editor
Of the Nopos Yremya declares that Rus
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