powers; and this fact must be borne in mind in reviewing the political situation.
Although the Russo-Japanese War is still recent, events have moved rapidly since then. In those days Japan purported to be fighting for the open door, and Russia was regarded as the aggressor against China's integrity. Recent events have clearly indicated that the two powers who fought over Manchuria have discovered that their aims and policies in the Far East may not, after all, be irreconcilable. It is significant that the Russo-Japanese agreement almost coincided with the rejection by those two powers of the American proposal to internationalize the Manchurian railways. In the summer of 1910 came the annexation of Korea by Japan, and in March 1911 the Russian ultimatum to China over the commercial treaty of 1881. Each event, taken separately, may be regarded as of little importance, but taken together they are a clear indication of the policy of the two powers in the Far East at the present time. Moreover, recent events in connexion with the Six Power Loan to the new Chinese Republic have confirmed the suspicion that Russia and Japan are attempting to utilize the financial straits of China in order to secure the recognition of their so-called rights in Mongolia and Manchuria respectively. The world may well be astonished at the spectacle of bankrupt Russia and Japan anxiously rushing to force money upon China at five or six per cent., which they would have borrowed at four per cent. from London and Paris, and then withdrawing their doubtful favours at the last minute, unless their obscure privileges in Outer China were recognized. Recent exchanges of views, moreover, said to have taken place between
