NOTE AND COMMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7758, 9 March 1905, Page 2

NOTE AND COMMENT.

The New Zealand Ileraid concludes an article on thy battle TIIK of Mukden in the fo|--HA'l'l'l-E OF lowing terms : 111 its MI'KDEN. unmistakable proof of the superior military, str 11-tii of Japan, we have sufficient reason for placing this battle a mong the greatest tattles of the world. Liau-yatig" was not decisive, for Kuropatkin could claim tjiiat he lost It under circumstances no! In 'lH'inslves discouraging ; 110 such plea is possible now. As Hastings showed the military superiority oi the Normans to the Saxons, the Armada tho naval superiority oi the English to the Spaniards, and Waterloo the military superiority of the Aivg-lo-Geemanic alliance lo France, we are now shown the military superiority of Japan to Russia, a Power which lias, by common consent, lieeu accepted as Ihe dominant Power ill North-eastern Asia. The war may drag out a campaign, but none can doubt that the sceptre oi Asiatic dominion has fallen from the bunds oi Ihe Tsar into the hands oi the Alikccdo, and that Wsiory will lienceiorth record for u» the expansion of Japan at the expense of Russia, and possibly of others. Hut this battle may do more. U may not unlikely overturn the throne of the Tsar as ivell as his pr'estlge by adding the inal shock to the internal troubles }i Russia. For the Tsar is esientialy a war-lord. He represents no ?reat national movement, no great iocial aspiration, 110 great conslituional development. He Is heir to a lynasty that has won its way |»,y he sword and the rules of the iword, by meeting complaints with nillets and riding down reforms with Jossacks. Which form of Govei'i)nent is quite possible as long as the irmies of the Tsar are regarded as incorHiuerable either at home or I broad, but becomes impossible when it the back oi universal internal de> ontcnt comes the fact that the miliary system of Russ'ia has proved itelf a, broken reed when leaned upi.n II ilnuchuriit.