The Situation ia the Far East.

Feilding Star, Volume XIX, Issue 157, 31 December 1897, Page 2

The Situation ia the Far East.

Tclc,^ra«'b. Press AsnociatiDu. Cojij right Imi.vnguai, D comber SO. It is seated that tlio Frcacb have occupied tho Island of Hainan, off the coast; of China. It is stated tbr.t the owners of the Ernjiroa lina of steam? bips running between Vancouver, Cbiu:., and Japan, have received a requisition from the British Admiralty nutboiitics desiring their steamships to bs kc\ t in readiness for any emergency. Ottawa, December 30. The Cauadian i'acilic Hail way authorities say they are not aware of tbo reported requisition that tbo Empress lino of steamers .should be kept in readiness in case of an emergency. Tho latest Home News *ays : — Russia is tightening her grip on Korea to tho discomfiture of both Japt.n and Great Britain. Sha cither ha? secured the appointment oi a I<us3j;.n to control Korean linances, in pU.co oi Mr J. Mclieary Brown, or is ci deavouring to do so. At the same time, it is reported that she is attempting aho to dispo3o Sir Herbert Hart from the InspectorGeneralship of Chinese Customs, in order to give China the lenefit of hey assistance in this direction. Cable messages from the Fp.i* E ist arc notoriously misleading, but it would bo unwise to assumt: that these schemes of Russia are not boiug actively pushed by pertinacious agents. K jssia in Asia has, it is to bo feared, as little scraplo as France in West Af-ica, and Me George Jamieson, in his address beforo the London Chamber of Commerce on China and trado prospect 3, might well express surprise that undt veloped tracts in the Far East do not attract at least as tnach attention as African hinterlands. The whole of China proper is rich with harvests which the engineer and the railway contractor zaish'n tap for the banelit of commerce in general. As Mr Jamieson said, there need be no undue sensitiveness shown in urging China to amcud her ways. India affords her an opportunity of uud3rstandingtb.» effects of railways and commerce, and it is a fact that concessions wrung from her in the past have proved of as mu<*h advantage to herself as to others. Wo are afforded evidence fron time to timo that she is inclined to throw off her immemorial torpor, but tae wonder is atter the rough handling she received from Japan in the late war, and the modifications insisted on by Russia, France and England at various points on her frontiers, that she s not already wido awakej