THE " OPEN DOOR" IN CHINA.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] have no wish to continue a discussion with your corre- spondent " Scruts.tor " (Spectator, June 6th), who, none too courteously, prefers to trust to his own memory rather than accept the references I gave him to published official docu- ments. But I owe it to you, Sir, and to your readers, to give him a reply. First of all, I must repeat with reference to Batoum that I made no quotation from Article LIX. of the Treaty of Berlin, but quoted the Article in full as it stands embodied, not in a separate White Paper, but in the instru- ment signed at Berlin by all the Plenipotentiaries. What " Scrutator " thinks it was is, therefore, no more to the point than what he remembers of the Protocols, which are on record in "State Papers," Vol. L XIX., pp. 1,022-24. Prince Gortchakoff's words were :—" Je suis autorise a declarer qu'usant de son droit de souverainete, mon auguste Maitre declarera Batoum port franc." Commenting upon this statement," le President [Prince Bismarck] constate l'importance de la communication que le premier• Plenipotentiaire de Russie vient de faire au nom de son gouvernement." Other• explanations given by Gortchakoff, " et surtout la constitution de Batoum en port franc, forment des modifications considerables au Traite de San Stefano. Son Altesse Serenissime ajoute que la derniere
aoncessien facilite revacuation Ifatotun et l'echange de
cede place contre Erzeroum." " Scrutator" asserted on May 23rd that whilst we opposed Russia, we gave Germany and France " carte blanche to close the doors in their spheres of influence " in China. I asked him when and where . we had done so. He now admits that with reference to France he does "not feel so certain," but his "impression is that during the Tonquin. War and negotia- tions 'France obtained preferential rights." France annexed Tonquin, and naturally acquired, not merely preferential, but sovereign, rights. That has nothing to do with " spheres of influence " in China. With reference to Germany in Shan- tung, " Scrutator " will find the text of the despatch addressed by Mr. Balfour, then acting for Lord Salisbury at the Foreign Office, on April 2nd, 1898, in the Parliamentary Blue-book, China, No. 1, 1899 (C. 9,131). My point, moreover, was that nowhere has Germany (or France) interfered with the status quo in a treaty port as Russia has at Newchwang, in Manchuria. In the Yangtae Valley and in Shanghai, he now says, Ger- many claims " equal rights with us." But equal rights, I sub- mit, are not preferential rights, and for my part, I trust that if ever Germany claims the latter in those regions, we shall oppose her, and oppose her far more vigorously than we have opposed the Russian claims in Manchuria, where our interests are unquestionably less important than in Middle China. As for the relative value of British commercial interests in China and in Russia, I discussed, as " Scrutator " had done, the present condition of things. His reply that it might have been other- wise if this, that, or the other had happened or had not happened reminds one of the old French proverb :—" Avec des si on mettrait Paris dans une bouteille." " Scrutator " adds that " Russia has been for a long time soliciting the aid of British capital in the development of her enormous resources." Is "Scrutator" aware that she obtained such aid a few years ago in other quarters, notably in Belgium and in France, with the result that tens of millions of pounds sterling of Belgian and French capital have been absolutely and irretrievably lost in Russian industrial and financial enterprises ? If he will refer to a Report issued by the Foreign Office in June, 1901 (Miscellaneous Series, No. 555), he will read that "foreigners, especially Belgians and Frenchmen, have lost enormously of late years in Russian undertakings." The total capital thus invested by Belgians alone was esti- mated in this Report at 718,000,000 francs, and a table was published of the shares of the leading companies showing a depreciation which ranged between 50 and 90 per cent. On the-other hand, British capitalists, who, accoraing to " Scru- tator " in their folly, have invested their money in China, have prospered exceedingly. Russia's aims and aspirations in connection with the Persian Gulf and India are, I admit, matters of speculative opinion, in regard to which I may be wrong or " Scrutator" may be wrong. I at any rate lay no claim to infallibility. " Scrutator's " assertion that the Foreign Office is "ruled from Calcutta in our relations with Russia" is, I presume, merely a rhetorical flourish. Does he mean that the Indian Government should have no voice in questions that may at least conceivably affect the interests of our great Indian dependency, where we are trustees for the future of two hundred and fifty million souls P—I am, Sir, &c.,
MIDDLE EAST.
[This correspondence must now cease. We have published two letters from " Scrutator " and two from " Middle East," and therefore neither can say that the other has been favoured.—ED. Spectator,]
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