Powers Contend Over China Crisis and Peking Railroad
THE crisis in China still absorbs the attention of the managers of the world. Japan presses for the recognition of a “sphere of influence” for her, embracing three provinces; and has notified China of her intention to land twice as many troops as does Russia, if any Russian troops are sent to Peking; and four thousand Russian troops have been landed, and seventeen hundred with four cannon have started to Peking. The Chinese foreign office “has been packed with Boxer chiefs, who have replaced the former members.” The railroad between Peking and Tien-tsin was torn up, so that the powers, in sending troops to Peking, are obliged not only to fight their way, but to repair the railroad as they go, and to guard it after they have repaired it. The New York Times says that “it is plain that the authorities at Washington are disturbed, and with reason, at the growing gravity of the Chinese situation. The program of ‘splendid isolation’ which we have laid down for ourselves is evidently impracticable. . . . The latest instructions continue to enjoin independent action, ‘as far as possible.’ Unfortunately, it is not possible to any extent whatever.”