Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 116 (Color Image)

0116	Among the Celestials : vol.1

90 AMONG THE CELESTIALS. [CHAP. IV.

upheld in Manchuria, our task in afterwards

upholding them in North China and the

Yangtse Valley will be doubly increased. I

have assumed that in these days of hungry

competition among the nations it is even more

difficult than before to support a weak un-

civilised state against the advance of European

Powers, and that when the former owns un-

developed estates, the exploitation of which is

of vital importance to mankind in general, to

attempt to impede that advance is scarcely less

immoral than futile. The problem, then, has

been how to preserve our interests without

pig-headedly impeding the legitimate advance of

Russia. The solution I offer is, that finding it

impossible at present to come to an under-

standing with her, we must exert our energies

to compel her to come to such an agreement

not, however, by supporting China to resistance,

but by making Russia realise that advances on

her part which are accompanied by the exclu-

sion of British trade and the cancelment:of our

rights, only necessitate counter-advances on our

side ; that we cannot possibly sit still and see

our trade driven out of country after country,

province after province, and port after port.

National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books