Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-06
GERMANY NEUTRAL
IN THE FAR EAST
kN0X'S PLAN INFLUENCED BY
FINANCIAL INTERESTS
BERLIN NEWSPAPER DISCUSSES
MANCHURlAN AFFAIRS
Is Inclined to View with Alarm Ever
Increasing Power of America
in World of
Trade

BERLIN, Feb. 5.-The German attt-
tude toward the United States proposal
on the naturalization of the Manchu-
rian railways is discussed at length by
Die Post.
At first glance, it says, the proposal
has something convincing about It for
all friends of world peace who believe
that the age of blood and iron Is about
to be replaced by an age of fine words
Careful consideration, however. the
Post adds, must very soon induce
Europeans to adopt an attitude OF
friendly reserve-that is to say, to re-
ject automatically this seemingly hu-
manitarian proposal on the ground
that the Manchurian railways are pure
ly a Russo-Japanese affair which mas
already been settled for years ahead
by China in her treaties with Japan
and with Russia.
Notwithstanding the excellence and
friendliness of Germany's relations
with the United States-"whose new
est imperialist world policy is pre-
scribed largely by the superfiuous
capital of it's millionaires must
decline. continues the Conservative
organ. to support actively these pro-
posals, prompted as they are by a
policy which aims at promoting purely
American interests.
1--WE, too" says the Post, "haYe to
consider in the first place our own
welfare What should we say if one
day similar proposals We're made by
some great power concerning Alsace-
Lorraine? The Germans should be
the first to understand that a storm
of indignation has been raised by this
American proposal throughout the
whole of Japan.
af
far wrong when they maintain that
the proposal deserves no serious con-
sideration-Japan having sacrificed
100000 human lives and about $1,000
000, 900 to gain possession of the Man
churian railways-and that the ac-
ceptanee of the American proposal
would be tantamount to a second
Treaty of Shimonoseld.
others for Open Door
"As Japan, Russia and China have
already agreed to the open door in
Manchuria, Germany, above all, has
no reason for eXerting a friendly in
fiuence on Japan and Russia for the
benefit of America. Were Russia to
give way this would simply mean the
abandonment of her policy in the far
east, while Japan must reject the
American proposal or her freedom Of
movement towards the west would be
gone. Germany, at all events, has no
ground for departing in this question
from her diplomatic reserve, and she
cannot overlook the fact that Russia
is the ally of France and Japan the
ally of England Notwithstanding
Shantung and Kiaochow, the Man
ehurian problem-as also that of su-
premacy in the Pacific-is a. question
which America and Japan will one day
have to solve between themselves
alone.
In case of a so-called world war +"
the Post continues, Germany must
direct her diplomatic efforts towards
making the Asiatic and also the Is
lamitic world factors of power with
which Germany's enemies will have to
reckon. In any case it would be a
fatal and suicidal enterprise on the
part of Germany to participate in a
semi step, the outcome OF
which must be a new Shimonoseki for
the japanese Prussians of the east.
American capital is forcing its way to
a very serious extent into European
spheres of infiuence-and it will al
ways be a question for careful consid-
GRAFTON on the part of European (and
thus also of German diplomatisss
whether the humanitarian proposals of
President Taft and his secretary, Mr..
Knox, are not influenced, unconsciOusly
perhaps, by the financial policy of a
few American millionaires, which mill
tates against all serious intellectual
progress"