THE BALANCE OF POWER.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1011, 29 December 1910, Page 5

THE BALANCE OF POWER.

• _— - EUROPE AND THE EAST. TURKEY'S RELATIONS WITH HER BIG NEIGHBOURS. ENGLAND'S DEFENCE SYSTEMBy Tele2ra,ph—Press Association—Copyright. (ReO. December -28, 10 p.m.) Paris, December-SB. "Le Temps" publishes an interview with M. I'aul Deschanel, the well-known Deputy and authority on French foreign affairs. M. Deschanel declared that the RussoJapanese agreement had enabled Russia to resume her position in the councils of Europe. It would prove a great source of weakness to the Triple Alliance if frosh complications or changes in the balance of power occurred in the Near East. Franca had been late in realising tho essentially nationalist character of the Young Turk revolution, but though Turkey momentarily inclined to the Teutonic . Powers in order to counterbalance Slav and Hellenic influences at home, Turkey. would mately not favour any particular Power. France's financial resources provided an incomparable weapon, which ought to be subservient to her policy. M. Deschanel added: "I, like Lord Roberts, Lord Kitchener, Lord Beresford, Mr. Balfour,, Mr. Haldane, and Mr. Robert Blatchford, desire to point out the contrast between Great Britain's diplomacy, which has become Continental, and Great Britain's system of defence, which remains insular. All are becoming agreed upon the necessity for an effort."-

CHINA AND JAPAN. | - RUMOURS OF TENSION. St. Petersburg, December' 27. Alarmist rumours are current at Tladivostock of tension •. between China and Japan. The Russo-Japanese Agreement, 'signed in July, provides that Russia and Japan, shall co-operate in all that - concerns the working of their respective railways in Manchuria, and refrain from all rivalry that would prevent the attainment of this object. Both Powers to maintain the. status quo in Manchuria as established by the treaties and agreements between Russia and Japan, and between each of .these Powers and China. In case anything occurs to endanger the status quo, the contracting Powers bind themselves to discuss the situation and to take joint measures to remove the danger. Dr. Dillon, writing in the "Contemporary Review" at the time, stated that it was the commercial policy of the. United States in the Tar East' that had driven Russia and Japan* together for the purpose of safeguarding their respective . interests. According to the view of Dr. Dillon, the' United States having lost the markots of Japan and Korea, found that China still remained, , and", the Washington Government"thereupon set to work to cultivate China.. by "various acts of unusual generosity, notably the' remission of the damages amounting to. w8220,000 which China was , to 1 pay to the United States after the Boxer troubles.. . Chin?, became the ward of the. United States, and its policy is now influenced by wishes and, 'perhaps,' by the advice of t"fte Washington Government. In fact, tic position is China and the United Stsfe versus Russia and Janali. Apparently, it was the action of UiyijjL States Seeretaryvo'f:.State,'■ in .'circulartsrag the Powers with: a Note advocating: : tho neutralisation-.'of' the Manchunan /railways that drove Japan and Russia.' to sifrn the o.r':e"*ne.~. f 'v . > ...

.Apropos of M. Deschanel's femarßs ok > Hie relations of Turkey with, the Powers, •it may bs. recalled that the -'millions which • the' Turks have been seeking to secure for the purchase of shirs ana guns were finally raised in Germany, after the failure of .lengthy loan negotiations in France.-. The episode,- says' a writer in the "Manchester Guardian." completed the severance of whai 1 might have been a happy, friendship between Britain and the>:Yonng Turks, "llore were reasons enough to distrust-Turkish finance,", he continued, -"subject as it is to the imperative .exigencies of . soldiers. But the French objection to the policy of the! Young Turks" was not jo much that they : are buying more, cannon- arid 1 warships than they can .' afford. It. was that they are buying them in ' Germany.' Finance was used as a comnercial and diplomatic weapon, as a factor in that struggle-for the balance. of power in Europe, which is at bottom an . AngloGerman rivalry. It was used, moreover, in the way. most surely . calculated to wound the'proper pride of the Turks. Censure their Chauvinism as we may, it is in the main a healthy reaction against, the humiliations and the decadence of the old regime. Yet France in \these\negotiations was-seeking to impo«o on Turkey's financial control which sEa had never endured in the worst days of Palace , misrule. \ In. that attempt. we were the seconds." . -