The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-07-16
PARTITION COMING

Land lust greed, jealousy and interna- I tional enmities played their part in China. i People talk about the coming Partition of China" For 20 years it has been a growing certainty and has, to a most
 material degree, already taken place. l Since 1900 China has lost tremendous | tracts of territory. Manchuria has gone l from her control, although the fiction of ! Chinese sovereignty bas been maintained. | Mongolia, inner Mongolia and Thibet are | likewise gone in the same manner The great nation has been shorn of literally Japan holds South Manchuria. Russia, | North Manchuria. Japan claims a ! sphere of influence in inner Mongolia. Russia has a virtual protectorate over Mongolia and claims a sphere in West ern China.'' Under British protection Thibet has become independent.
 1 Yuan Shih-kai stood in the path of further partition, particularly in that of the Japanese who seek and are att taining domination in China. He was the strong man of the nation and there is no one to take his place. Lii Yuan hung, the vice president, support for whom was urged by Yuan on his death
 bed. cannot do it. He is despised by the powerful revolutionaries of the south. Nor can the dreamer, Sun Yat Sen, nor his more powerful followers like Whang Heinz, Tsai 40 and the rest. China, with her many languages, her vast provinces that are almost foreign lands to on another. and, most of all, with no symbol of authority in Peking, to obey and to revere, cannot hold together The place becomes breeding ground for revolution. Slowly, perhaps, but nevertheless certainly, one
 revolution will follow another And every revolt will give the land grab bers a chance. Outside interests will even foment revolution and internal strife. There are those who will do anything to keep China from becom- ing strong. The Chinese have great pride of race, but not of nation. They, at least the common people, are used
 to having an Emperor to whom to be loyal and to venerate. The foreign educated man, the Young China ele- ment has an intense national feeling,
 but the bulk of the population have none of it. Indeed, there is little for them to be patriotic about. So they will go this way. and that, led into strife by politicians and self-seekers, and by patriots in the hands of pol- ticians. It will come to pass that for- eign intervention will be necessary. In the east the meaning of that is so clear that it Is merely a formula in such logical sequence does one thing fol- law another. The claim of special in- teT6StS cOiIle llISl, tHeI q SpHeTGt or influence" then intervention for the protection of foreign lives and prop erty," military occupation and final ly ownership. China is headed that way now, of that there can be no doubt. It is an important feature of the situ- ation that the only nation in the world that during the great war can ef- fectively intervene in China is Japan. ] Japan is having 1t all her own way out there now ! LOSING NO CHANGES
 Nippon is losing no chances. She takes every opportunity to nail down her hold on China. even at the ex- 1 pense of the interests of some of her 1 allies Tn many important respects she i has ruthlessly transgressed upon the 1 rights of others. When this war Is | over there will be a reckoning and 1 the center of interest in the entire I world will be transferred from Flu l rope to the fare east It is inevitable and in it's bigness the situation is even
 now transcended only by the European war.
 | l first saw Yuan Shi-Ka in November | of 1911, a few weeks after the outbreak I of the ever-growing revolution against ! the Manchus which was to turn the
 worlds oldest monarchy into It's newest
 republic. Yuan had not been in Peking