CHINESE INTEREST IN THE EUROPEAN WAR.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5234, 1 January 1878, Page 3

CHINESE INTEREST IN THE EUROPEAN WAR.

The North China Herald of September 1 says

“ There can be no doubt that the Chinese view with the most intense interest the struggle now going on in Europe and Asia between their dreaded neighbors and the Turks. They are informed of all tho incidents of the two campaigns, and they watch the news which the telegrams bring with keen anxiety. The foreigner who will talk to them on the allabsorbing subject is always popular, and they display the most lively and vivid cariosity when the great struggle assumes any new phase. As we might expect, the victories of the Turks afford them the keenest satisfaction. Up to a recent date, in spite of some bluster and bravado, there was no doubt that the Chinese feared the Western nations, and they are quite wise enough to know that it would be extreme folly to take any step which would provoke an attack upon them by any of the half-dozen of the great European Powers ; but the Chinaman now watches events and reads the signs of the times, and scans the political situation with attentive eyes. Ho is perfectly well aware how the powerful European nations are holding ’ each other in check, and he watches the great chess-board with a strong impression that at no distant date he may find himself with a very considerable interest in the result of the game. He has estimated the strength, size, population, revenue, and resources of tho Turkish Empire, and the conclusion is presenting itself to him that if Turkey can make so bold a resistance to the

aggression of the vast and ambitious despotism, the Middle Kingdom with her 400,000,000 oj people need not feel any great alarm. As telegram after telegram comes in announcing now ‘ that Dervish Pasha has carried the advanced Russian ’ positions ■■•' 'at 'Batoum;’, again, ‘ that the Russians are repulsed on the Osman Bazar-road ; ’ later, * that Siilieinan Pasha has arrived at Elena north of the Balkans;’ and later yet, ‘that Ahmed Mukhtar Pasha has defeated the Russians with vast loss ;’ the spirits of the Chinaman rise, and he looks forward with a confidence not altogether ill-placed towards his own future chances, if the clash with the giant should come.” The North China Herald sympathises with these feelings, but dots not think Chinese hopes are altogether justified, for the reason that Chinamen are not Turks.