Russia and Japan

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Apr 4, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 14.

Russia and Japan.— There is much talk of war between Japan and America, but by those in high position in both nations this supposition is declared to be wholly unwarranted. It is argued — and with some force, it must be admitted — that Japan's objective prize for which she is striving is Manchuria, and the prospective foe is her former antagonist, the big Russian bear. Japan would never, if she could prevent it, permit Russia to build a great eastern empire demanding sea privileges, good harbors, etc. A strong development of Russia in the Far East would be a constant menace to Japan; and it looks as tho Japan was bound to countercheck every step eastward that Russia may take by advances into Manchuria, and perhaps by aiding China. Russia seems to be making a sad mistake in her attitude toward China. She may arouse all the Mongols of the Orient against her. Among the able men in the Russian Duma is Professor Milukoff, leader of the Constitutional Democrats. He declared in a brilliant speech, March 15, that "the present affair in the Far East involves exalted personages. At the present moment it is difficult to say what next spring will bring forth. We are pursuing three contradictory and mutually exclusive policies in the Near, Middle, and Far East. We are afraid of German invasion more than ever. We are hopelessly stranded in the Far East. We have lost sight of the Near

East, where critical events are preparing. Apparently Russian diplomacy has sunk to the old setting which led to the Russo-Japanese war."

He tells us that Russian alliances are "merely ones of defense," that she "has lost her old friends without gaining a new one." Regarding Russia's attitude toward China he said: "This government should have avoided the sudden, excessive, and insistent demand. China is no longer a mere ethnographic mass, and the Russian attitude toward the new China should be marked by good-will, not by haughtiness."

Matters are uncertain, and storms are brewing. Yet God is "holding the winds of war" till His work is done. More important to every soul than all national questions is the relation of every soul to the government of the Most High!