Page:The National Geographic Magazine Vol 16 1905.djvu/376

Rh and that should peace unfortunately be broken it will have the effect of restricting the area of hostilities."

Here you have in the fewest possible words the spirit that animated Japan no less than Great Britain. Various comments have been made by different writers and statesmen as to the effect of the alliance upon the world. It has been asserted by some newspapers that this alliance is directly responsible for the present war.

Let them say whatever they choose, but a conscientious study of the document itself cannot fail to convince any fair-minded man that these allegations are entirely groundless. The alliance is purely peaceful and defensive. In one of the passages of the dispatch above referred to, Lord Lansdowne said that "we join in entirely disclaiming any aggressive tendencies." But you must observe that the fact which made Great Britain abandon her long cherished traditional pride and policy of "splendid isolation" is in itself a suffi- cient proof that the situation in the Far East was one of grave danger and de- manded unusual precaution. It was evident that Russian aggressions were no mere phantoms, but w 7 ere terribly real and threatening.

These aggressions mainly called this alliance into existence for the mutual protection of the interests of the signa- tories, and later forced Japan to take up arms against her colossal neighbor for the defense of her rights and her very existence.

The primary objects of the alliance are the maintenance of the integrity of the Chinese Empire and the mainte- nance of the open-door policy in China, the policy which was conceived and so ardently advocated by the British states- men, and which was so skillfully and happily inaugurated as a matter of in- ternational concern by one of the fore- most statesmen and diplomats of our day — Hon. John Hay — three years be- fore the conclusion of the Anglo- Japa- nese alliance. In spite of all the adverse criticisms emanating from unfriendly sources, I confidently declare that all the objects of the alliance have been so far nobly and successfully accomplished.

By the recent course of events in the Far East these conditions which imminently menaced the integrity of the Chinese Empire have largely been re- moved and the ground for the open- door policy has been made firmer. Were it not for the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, the war might have occurred in 1902, when China demanded the evacuation of Manchuria by Russia. It was in fact delayed at least for some time, and the area of hostilities has been quite effectively restricted, since its outbreak, by reason of this alliance, which has in this respect received indirectly a very strong support from the enlightened policy pursued by the United States in reference to China.

To me it appears that the effect of the alliance has given so much satisfac- tion that, if the language used by the President of the Victorian Club in his invitation to this banquet extended to the Japanese representative expressed the sentiment of the British public — which I believe and hope to be the case — the renewal of that compact after the expiration of the prescribed terms is inevitable.

We are anxious, with Great Britain and the United States, to see China become rich, strong, and self-repecting. We have our own salvation to work out in our own way. We wanted simply to be let alone and to settle the problems that demanded solution. We were not animated by territorial greed or lust of conquest. We preferred the conquest of peace to the victories of war. We know that the Far East has a great future, and the greater the future the better for all the world. Japan could hope to gain nothing by war and had