On Tuesday Baron Komura made an important statement in the
Japanese Diet on foreign policy. The .Anglo-Japanese Alliance "has steadily gained in strength and solidity, and to-day it stands upon a perfectly firm and enduring founda- tion." Japanese relations with France and Germany were most satisfactory, while those with Russia were "constantly increasing in intimacy." As to the more doubtful relations of his country with China and the United States, Baron Komura pointed out that some disputes with China had already been settled, while others were not impossibly difficult if there were a spirit of accommodation. The progress of reform in China was being watched with sympathy—We do not gather from any of the reports of the speech that Baron Komura discussed the unfortunate dismissal of Yuan Shih-kai.—" We have invariably," he went on, "made it the guiding rule to observe the principle of the 'open door' and equal opportunity, and we are firmly determined to adhere to that principle, in the future as in the past, with unswerving loyalty." Nothing can be more explicit than that statement, and we are very glad to have the principle on which Britain has always insisted so generously supported. At the same time, it is difficult to reconcile these professions in all cases with Japanese conduct "in the past" in Manchuria. Japan has prohibited the con- struction of at least one Chinese railway, and has even refused the request that she should state exactly in what area she means to enjoy the exclusive privilege of railway enterprise.
