The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1910-03-20
SECRETARY KNOX MUST HAUL
BATTERED HULK Of open DOOR
IN FROM STORMY SEAS
Great Britain Who Was Formerly Defender of Policy,
Has Now Turned Away for Reasons Unknown.
OPEN DOOR IS NOVELTY In THE ORIENT
Russia and Japan Promptly Reject Knox Plan for China
to Buy Manchurian Railway Though Both
Are to Be Paid

WASHINGTON, March 10
Somewhere on the high seas of di-
plomacy and international politics
is the very much battered hulk OF
the Open Door
Perhaps it would be better to
say that she is pounding on the
Manchurian reeS which is located
in the most dangerous and the
most frequented cruising ground
OF the present day of diplomats in
the orient, where the channels are
tortuous and the currents shifting
and elusive. But, whatever her
plight, the conviction is growing
about the state department that
it is high time that somebody
most naturally the United States
went to the rescue and towed her
to port to be drydocked and over
hauled.
THREE COUNTRIES STILL
DEFEND POLICY.
This will be one of the biggest
tasks of Secretary KnoXs admin
istration, in view of the recent de-
velopments. Great Britain, form
er defender of the open door
policy, either quaking in fear of
Germany and sacrificing anything,
therefore, to maintain the friend
ship of Japan and Russia, or appre-
hensive lest she may need the CO.
operation of both in suppressing
the rebellion which threatens to
break out in India, has shown a
most remarkable change of atti-
tude Japan and Russia, forced
out into the open, have practically
declared that, treaties and pledges
to the contrary, they propose to
get as much out of Manchuria and
China as they can. Only the
United States, Germany and
France are left to defend the
policy of equal opportunity in the
orient, and France is not disposed,
at the present time, to make her
interest a cause for the suspicion
of a quarrel with any of her neigh.
bors. If the sacrifice of China
were necessary, as it appears, to
make new move in European
politics, almost any of the Euro
pean powers would be willing to
give up its interests in the open
door" for an advantage to be
gained nearer at home. The
United States, having launched the
policy, is almost alone defend.
ing it. ......
"oPEN DOOR" SAVED CHINA
AS enunciated by John Hay, the
open door" or diplomatic gospel
of equal opportunity" was a nov
city in oriental affairs, and il
saved the Chinese empire just at
the moment when the European
powers seemed to be on the verge
of getting into dispute over the
spoils. The Russo-Japanese war
placed new aspect on it, and it
was fortified by declarations in
the Portsmouth treaty. The i'm
perial government at Picking,
emerging out of the sleep of cen
turtles, began to realize that the
open door was her sole defense
against the rapacity of other ma
tons willing to risk much for new
territory.
Secretary Knox, desiring to
make the policy an active rather
than potential force, proposed
in his note to the powers that an
international loan be floated to en-
able China to take the Manchurian
roads out of the hands of Japan
and Russia and remove thereby
the most prolific source of diplo-
matte dispute in the orient and