Page:Paul Samuel Reinsch - Secret Diplomacy, How Far Can It Be Eliminated? - 1922.djvu/156

Rh itself are controlled by a narrow group, with absolutist authority. There is so much talk of "frank discussion" that every one is put on his guard as soon as the word "frank" is uttered.

The "peace of Asia," a "Monroe Doctrine for Asia," the "Open Door," "greatest frankness," "hearty coöperation with other powers," are heralded at times when the context of facts makes a strange commentary. But while such a discrepancy is very strident in a country where military absolutism wields control over diplomacy, with a grudging obeisance to representative forms, yet other countries are by no means free from this hypocrisy. What blasted promise of equity in all that succession of declarations concerning Korea, China, Persia, parts of Turkey, and Morocco. What confusion of political ideals in supporting Denikin, Wrangel, and Horthy as defenders of "representative government."

When Russia and Japan, in response to Secretary Knox' Manchurian proposal had made their secret arrangements to defeat his policy, Great Britain, though it had made many reassuring protestations at Washington, nevertheless had secretly acquiesced (to cite a Russian diplomatic paper) in the "recognition of our (Russian) sphere of influence in Northern Manchuria, Mon-