The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 1907. HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 195, 16 August 1907, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 1907. HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF.

Wmr the emum ihet lock* utiatmmt*. 9m the wrmg thmt ne*dt retietmme^ Tm- the futmrc to the diMtamot, 4M4 the g—4 ttm* naudt.

Ever since wstOry first began to b written one of its most fascinating aspects to thoughtful students has alway been the irony of Fate—that curious an capricious inconsistency -with whic human ambitions are thwarted an human projects and policies are set a nought by the inscrutable and pitiles force of an overwhelming destiny. An perhaps no more striking illustration c J this all pervading principle of huma. il action has ever been recorded than t-h course of events in the Far East durrn the la»t decade. It is only twelve year since Russia, with the help of German, and France, wrested from Japan th fruits of her hard-won victories otp China, and the tzar established himsel as the supreme arbiter of the Orient' fate. And until t<hat portentous Februar night thrre jears ago when Japar wearied with Muscovite trickery and ie txigue, struck her first decisive blow. an* broke Russia's naval power in the Fa East, the Czar retained in the eyes of th Eastern World the full measure of tha super-eminent prestige and unquestione authority which his envoys claimed fo him. Then came the astounding war. i which Japan at a single stride force, hex way to the foremost ranK amon the Great Powers. But. in spite of Por Arthur and Liaoyang. Mukden, ani Tsushima. Russia ha* always Wung to th ! tattered vestiges of her Imperial disrnity and it is only after all these months o peace tiat sic ha* at last been forced bthe irresistible progress of events t* acknowledge h"r defeat, and to aecep ! formally the terms which Japan ha I dictated as essential to the maintenanc of order id the Far East. To the casuaj reader the clauses of tbr Russo-Japanese- Convention now cabled to us may not convey any deep or special .significance. "The independence and territorial integrity of China," "equal opportunity as regards commerce and industry for all nations in China,"" "the maintenance of the status quo in China"—these are diplomatic catch words with which I the world has long been familiar, and , which it has long ceased to over-value. J But the true inwardness of the present situation consists in this very fact that .' Russia is now adopting the precise terms I that Japan in vain urged upon her four j years ago as the only means br which ' war eouid be averted- The lease of Port Arthur and the occupation of Aianj churia, the building of the ilanchurian i railway, the Russian advance toward ■ Korea — all these movements, so the Czar's Ministers constantly assured j the world, were dictated solely by : Russia's desin- to maintain th,independence end integrity of China and to secure equal •cummercial opportunities for al! nations alike. Even when Russia had practically refuted to withdraw from Manchuria, after the J Boxer rebellion was repressed, and j though she liad ignored Japan's repeated J protests against her breach oi fa.th. she I was careful to give her formal adherence to the American protocol which declared j for the integrity of (. hina and the "■ Open Door."" And this was all that Japan then hoped or desired. It would be strange indeed if their marvellous successes against Russia had failed to suggest new ambitions and aspirations to the Japanese, But so late as August, 1903. and immediately before the outbreak of war. we find in the final claims laid by the Japanese Minister before the Czar these same reiterated demands for the independence and territorial integrity of China, and the maintenance of the "Open Door." It is only four years since the Japanese envoy was -waiting patiently in the Czar's ante-chamber for an answer to tnis last appeal. To-day it is Russia that submits to the ultimatum of Japan, and. in so doing, abandons at once and for ever her ambitious schemes of aggTession and expansion towards the Land of the Rising Sun. But the supreme irony of it all is that it is Japan who cow holds the reins of power, and if she has the will, she certainly has the strength to enforce Bussia's obedience to the terms that the Mikado's envoys pressed so long in rain upon the haughty ajid contemptuous indifference of the Czar.