The tension between England and Russia as to their pre-
tensions in China grows more acute. As we mentioned last week, the Russians object to clauses in a Chinese railway contract giving to the proprietors of the Northern Railway certain privileges inconsistent with the Russian claim to be the only railway owners in Manchuria. The English Minister supported the contract, but on the Russians repeating their protest in a more peremptory form, the Chinese showed a disposition to recede from their agreement. Sir Claude Macdonald thereupon informed the Tsung-li-Yamen that his Government insisted upon his countrymen's rights, and, if pressure were applied to Pekin, would support China, adding that if after this assurance China gave way, Great Britain would exact retribution. Mr. Brodrick on Tuesday stated that Sir Claude was acting upon his instructions, and that the British Government regarded the contract between China and the Northern Railway as a binding agreement. London and St. Petersburg are therefore at open variance, and if the latter threatens Pekin, as M. de Giers, the new Russian Minister there, seems inclined to do, a grave situation will arise, one, in fact, which must produce either a retreat by one party or a war. Is we have argued elsewhere, we do not see how either Government is to retreat, and would therefore suggest as the only alternative to constant and dangerous conflicts that a European Conference should delimit the sphere of action of each Power in China. That course would mean in the end partition, but it is better than the present one, which means stumbling along through repeated quarrels into war. China, of course, is merely a victim, the true antagonists being England and Russia.
