Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1905. PATCHING UP PEACE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 3569, 5 September 1905, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1905. PATCHING UP PEACE.

Javan seems inclined to risk nothing of the hard-earned advantage gained during the past year and a half of stern fighting with the armies of the Czar. The Mikado’s statesmen have evidently studied Muscovite history well, and observed recent doings very keenly, so that they have a high appreciation of possibilities in the way of broken promises and treacherous actions. Therefore, •Japanese representatives at the peace conference have laid down some very pointed and very inflexible requirements to be observed before drawing the teeth of the dragon’s representatives, so to speak, in the field. There is not much doubt, however, that every attention will be given to these details; the Russian bear has received such a drubbing that he is really only too pleased to be able to secure a little quiet rest at last. But there are other influences at work which mast tend to secure the observance of the Japanese demands. The decisive victories of the soldiers and sailors of the Rising Snn have opened the eyes of Europeans to the truth of the situation. As soldiers, Germane have long since been forced into admiration of Japanese strategists and armies, and, whatever may be their sympathies with the “Eastern neighbour,” they have been to no care to conceal their disappointment at his performance in the fie d. Austrian military authorities have bee* particularly struck in this respect; for nowhere probably was theconviction of Russian invincibility, and of the reckless folly of Japan in challenging, it, more ostentatiously displayed than in the semi official utterances of the Vienna press. It was unshaken by the earlier naval victories of the Japanese, which perhaps Austrian military men wore not competent to appreciate. It survived the defeat of the Ya-lu. But the result of the Kin-chau slaughter, the taking of Nan-ahan, the Liao-yang and the advance on Mukden were too much for it, and the newspapers vied with each other in extolling the intellectual and moral qualities of the conquerors. Such a just appreciation on the Continent .of the realities of the situation, as the London “Times” pointed out no less than a year age, must exert a useful influence upon Powers which might otherwise hanker after a fresh “ Eastern Dreibund ” and another attempt to rob Japan of the results she has won by her arms.