The Partition of China
By L. A. S.
THE question whether the hour has arrived for the partitioning of China is considered in a recent issue of The Independent, which makes some statements on the subject that are worthy of note. The manifest determination of Russia to occupy Manchuria may be, The Independent believes, because “Russia wants to settle this Chinese question that she may be free to turn her attention and direct her power to European Turkey.” While the purpose of Russia in Manchuria is clear, it is not so clear what the protesting powers can do about it. They6could meet and halt Russia by force at sea, but on the plains of northern China the contest would have to be fought, and there Russia has all the advantage. “Along the line of the Russian railroad and on the line of the interior river banks,” says The Independent, “Russia can easily remain supreme.” “The only power that could resist, if organized, is China herself, and she can do nothing for years to come.” Concerning the inability of China to help herself, and the likelihood of the other powers to follow Russia’s suit when they see that the empire can not be preserved intact, the same journal adds:— Perhaps never; for now what is there to hinder the partition of China? If the Russians take Manchuria, with Mongolia sure to follow, can it be imagined that the French will not take the southern provinces, where trouble is now brewing in which the French authorities in Tonquin are taking special interest? The prospect is most serious. And then what will Great Britain do on the Yangtse River? She will hardly be able to keep her hands off her special sphere of influence; Germany will want to increase her holding, and the ancient Chinese empire will be a thing of the past. Can it be prevented? It is not easy to see how, if Russia does not now back down. Give China twenty years more, under the military instruction of her best friend, Japan, and she might be able to withstand Russia and all the rest of her despoilers; but that time is not likely to be allowed. For us the question is how far we can oppose the new demands of Russia . . . . Moral pressure is all we are likely to use. We are not likely to go to war to protect our rights in Manchuria, simply because it will not pay. In such a difference between men, where one party has failed to keep a promise and injures another, they would go to law before a court. But here is no court, except that of The Hague; and with such a tremendous interest at stake, it is hardly to be supposed that a paper court would be listened to. Should Great Britain and Japan go to war, our sympathies would be with them, and one can imagine that we might be drawn in against our will. But can we believe that the great Gog and Magog war of the prophetic cranks, or the final conflict between the Cossack and the Anglo-Saxon, which we have been told would involve all the great nations of the earth and end the era of war in one great collapse of navies and armies and national debts, is now close upon us? The sky is darkening, but it is the part of the United States, for the present, to protest and appeal and hope that better counsels may prevail. Yes; the sky is darkening, and in the portentous shaping of events for coming strife, thoughts of “the great Gog and Magog war” of Bible prophecy come involuntarily to the minds of even the most skeptical. A tremendous conflict is indeed “close upon us;” and all who will may discern the fact not darkly, through the mists of human speculations, but clearly, in the light of the sure word of prophecy which points out our present position in its relation to things past, and things to come.