. The "Overland" to China. andirresolute policy of the past few years confirmedthem in the opinion that she could not be count-ed on to undertake and prosecute a war againstRussia, still less against Russia and France; thather wars, with their cheap glory, were only withhill tribes or Soudanese, and that she was unableto stand against a power like Russia. The moraldrawn from the events in South Africa is not likelyto lessen the growing want of confidence felt by theJapanese in Britain. If, they say, Britain finds suchdifficulty in dealing with some sixty thousand peas-ant farmers, what stand c
. The "Overland" to China. andirresolute policy of the past few years confirmedthem in the opinion that she could not be count-ed on to undertake and prosecute a war againstRussia, still less against Russia and France; thather wars, with their cheap glory, were only withhill tribes or Soudanese, and that she was unableto stand against a power like Russia. The moraldrawn from the events in South Africa is not likelyto lessen the growing want of confidence felt by theJapanese in Britain. If, they say, Britain finds suchdifficulty in dealing with some sixty thousand peas-ant farmers, what stand can she be expected tomake against, say, the Franco - Russian forces byland and sea ? The year 1902, or 1903 at latest, will see Euro-pean Russia connected by the iron road with Vla-divostok and Port Arthur; and the New Siberia,which must be held to include Manchuria, will havefully entered on its great career as the comingcountry of the twentieth century. Russia will beenabled to prosecute her plan; Corea and Northern 454. CONCLUSIONS China will be acquired, and gradually, step by step,by means of railways (favored always b}- T^rancc inthe south, and probably covertly, if not openly, byGermany in the north), she will extend her influ-ence southward until the Yangtszc is reached, andthere a connection made with the sphere of Frenchinfluence. Russia, whose strength has hitherto been entirelyon land, now aspires to be a sea-power. And inManchuria she has got coast, coal, and a maritimepopulation—excellent material for making sailors—and her presence on the Pacific Ocean and the Chi-nese Sea must give a great impetus to the aspirationfor a navy. It may be taken for granted that, havinggot so much, she will want more — ports in otherquarters, in many quarters, of the globe. Russia once on the Upper Yangtsze would involvea second, an eastern, Indian frontier problem forBritain of an infinitely more serious character thanthe western, for the utilization of the greater part ofthe
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