Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-05-24
THE WHITE PERIL IN CHINA
For East is East, and West lie West.
And never the twain shall meet.

And never the twain shall meet.
d ECENT lingo mutterngs bring to mind
IN this couplet. Our notion of Yellow
Peril is to the Oriental mind only an eX-
preston of the striving for its natural ana
to-be-hoped-for national expansion and
prosperity, while the very menacing White
Peril against which they are striving to de-
fend themselves is from our point of view
only the inevitable evolutionary development
of the white race, as it gradually takes con-
troll of the world.
All winter there has been an undercurrent
of feeling that China and Japan might seize
this moment while the meddling Concert
of Powers" was fully occupied, to settle their
own differences without fear of interference.
When secret negotiations between the two
nations began several months ago, the rest
of the world worked itself into quite state
of suspicion. Our lingo press thrilled ana
writhed over potential destruction of the
open door to China and our national honor
Finally all fears have been allayed. The
terms of the negotiations have been made
public, and the two Oriental nations seem to
be settling down amicably. Says the 1nde-
pendent G) in an editorial:
War between China and Japan Is averted.
Japan's ultimatum not only eNacts less than
China had already offered to concede, but
even defers for the present all consideration
of the demands which China charged would
impair her sovereignty.
Japan has the same rights in Asia that
we have in America under the Monroe Doc
trine-that is, the right to maintain Asia for
the Asiatics as we do America for the
Americans. Not only has Japan this right to
assume the political primacy of the Far
East, but II Is her duty to do so Otherwise
China may be dismembered and Japan may
be compelled to wage further wars against
encroaching rivals. When China becomes
Japan's equal in power as she surely will in
a very few years, II left to herself then she
can share with Japan the responsibility of
maintaining Asia against the White Peril.
On the other hand Japan has no more
right to impair China's sovereignty or eX-
clusively exploit her commerce than we have
that of Venezuela or Chill. Such a course
and bring down upon Japan the Just con-
demnation of the world
We are glad that our State Department
has not shared In the general alarm con-
cerning Japan's designs on the mainland
Mr.. Bryan says that he has been kept fully
informed by both the Chinese and Japanese
Governments of the progress of the nego-
tiatons, and he sees nothing in them to
jeopardize our treaty rights with China,
(which our Government has no thought of
surrenderlng."
interviewing the President of China
An interview, officially authorized and ap-
proved. with the President of China, by
Samuel c. Blythe, and cabled over to this
country. appears in the Saturday Evening
Post (2). 1t gives an authorized and very
up-to-the- minute idea OF China's Chief Ex-
ecutive.
whatever China can concede will be con-
ceded; but she cannot help remaining firm
on those articles which encroach on China's
sovereignty or infringe the treaty rights OF
other Powers" His Excellency Yuan Shi
Kai, President of China, in one softly spoken
but momentous sentence, thus expressed his
Views on the demands made by Japan on
presidential palace In Peking. He took a
slp from the cup of tea that stood before
him and placed both hands on the small
table at which we were sitting. He looked
straight across the table at me- and slowly
and gravely described China's foreign policy
as a policy of peace and truthfulness. We
talked for an hour. The following statement
Is authorized and approvedi
tfFyer since the commencement OF friendly
intercourse between China and the United
states. their relations have, without any in
terruption, been most cordial and amieabe.
the same form of government and are in
spired by the same ideals, their mutual
friendship is sure to grow more inti-
SConoerning the matter of internal i'm
provements my policy consists of two
schools through the country, As our sys-
TEN OF government has changed, popular
education now becomes a more fundamental
necessity than ever before. Secondly, /
propose TO develop industries and proper
means OF communication, / learn that the
commerce and finances OF the United States
owe their prosperity TO a great extent 10
the efficiency or means OF communication.
also propose 10 survey our mining fields
and 10 develop the best ones. nIst Chine.