Evening star., 1924-08-03
The Story the Week Has Told

the United States. hoping to obtain
from this country the capital to en-
able Persia to run her own show
and hold out against the unwelcome
Establishments of Russia and Great
Britain. The government has bitter
and unscrupuious enemies, and not
without a certain plausibility 1t has
been suggested that the attack on
the Americans was engineered by op-
position elements which hoped to dis
credit the government by embroiling
1T with the United States. The Persian
government has promised. and no
doubt in perfect Good faith, to COM
ply. to the utmost of it's power, with
the demands of our government. as
to financial reparation, investigation.
punishment, etc. Persia is indeed in
wild ferment, political, social and re-
ligious. Whether or no military ele-
ments participated in the attack on
Maj. Imbrie, the discipline of the Per-
sian army is notoriously bad. Some
have the reassuring thought that the
Imbrie incident will rally majority
sentiment in Persia in favor of the
reforms Risa Khan is trying to in
stitute.
China.-The new relations of inti-
macy between Peking and Moscow
cause pain to certain Western powers,
and well they may. That sweet af-
fance" is certainly an evaporation
and embarrassment, if not a menace,
to Western interests in China. I'm
ern powers have done for you. "Off
with the old love and on with the
new" You shameless jilt.
But Peking is not so greatly to be
blamed. After a long resistance she
yielded to Moscow's hateful caresses
only to escape what seemed a. worse
fate. Moscow has been secretly ne
gotiating with Chang Tso-Lin, Tu-
chun in Manchuria. Sun Yat-Sen,
president of the so called Canton re-
public. and other disaffected Chinese
princelings for. though China is
nominally a republic, they are a sort
doubted that separatist movements
backed by Moscow would sue
ceed; witness Mongolia, Independent
through red aid. So TO save life Pek-
it. The caresses of the Bear that
walks like man" are dangerous. We
may sum up by remarking that Chi
ma is more to be pitied than censured.
l believe that under the new Russo
Chinese treaty Moscow acknowledges
sort of kind of Chinese suzerainty
over Mongolia; not much of a su-
zerainty. But whatever the present
political arrangements, the process of
assimilation of Mongolia and Man.
churia to old China, through emigra-
tion of those provinces from the more
densely populated districts of old
China proceeds in it's secular way
(much faster. of course, in Manchuria
than in Mongolia). There is nothing e
in the world more impressive than
the assimilative power of Chinese
civilization. If China could be made
politically effective, whew!
x X
Japnn.-It is reported that the ne
gotiations at Peking between rep
resentatives of Moscow and of Toxic,
looking to establishment of normal
relations between their governments,
are making progress. One hears that
Japan no longr insists on the sole
right to exploit the resources of
northern Sakhalin with emphasis on
oiD, and that Siberia is out of the
picture. According to the latest dis
patches, Toxic proposes to compro-
mise by going halves with Moscow in
the exploitation of northern SAX
haTin, hoping even thus to get the oil
she requires for her navy and her
industries. There is a strong senti-
ment in Japan in favor of a close al
lance with Russia Such an alliance,
provided it were genuine q. e., based
on conviction of profit therefrom to
both parties) might conceivably have
stupendous consequences. 1t might in
cidentally sa1ve Japanese self-love,