The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 2, No. 5, February 3, 1898, page 19 by Various Authors
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nces of China would have the effect of turning them into commercial tributaries of Great Britain.
"A railway connecting Rangoon in Burmah by way of Bhamo with Ichang at the head of navigation on the Yang-tse-kiang would act as a suction pipe to draw away to the port of Rangoon the trade of the most prosperous and flourishing parts of China, and give products taking that route the advantage of many days in point of time and of distance in the race for the European markets. By just so much trade as might take the British route through Burmah, would the potential trade of other Powers, with no other but all sea routes from the coast at their command, be diminished.
"The advantage British manufactures would have for entry and distribution into the vast and populous regions which the British Government proposes to penetrate by means of railways constructed by British capital, and affording employment to British labor and shipping, are too obvious to need enlarging upon.
"A glance at the map will show that the better half of China proper, territorially and commercially, would, by the concession of the third and fourth of England's demands, be placed under her practical control."
The writer believes that the fourth demand is aimed at stopping the advance of the French in China beyond Tonquin.
Now comes the point of his article most interesting to us as Americans.
How are our interests in China to be affected by the European encroachments there?
They would be greatly injured, the writer points out, if any European Power were to secure such control in China that our Chinese trade would be restricted.
Consequently, our interests are on the side of China and of Japan, for the Japanese must now be looking with astonishment and alarm at the possible partition by European Powers of the nation which she herself conquered only a short time ago.
"It cannot possibly be for the advantage of this country to aid in establishing the financial and commercial, with the event