As regards the Concert Lord Lansdowne was evidently dissatisfied. Manchuria,
he admitted, could not be restored to the Chinese until a Chinese Government had been estab- lished in the capital sufficiently, strong to guarantee Russia against a renewal of disturbances. That means, of course, that it will never be restored, anymore than Egypt will be restored to the Sultan, and why the Foreign Secretary who sees that could not say - so, and say also that it matters nothing to Great Britain, we are at a loss to understand. We submit to a vast and unavoidable increase of Russian terri- tory with so bad a grace that every Continental thinks we have suffered a blow, and every Russian celebrates a victory over "the secular enemy, Great Britain." Lord Lansdowne, be it noted, said in passing that in the Tientsin incident "moderation had been shown on both sides," but admitted that at one moment the situation had become "extremely acute"; in other words, there was danger of a rupture between this country and Russia over competing railway claims to a bit of land. That is the kind of danger we risk when we art "in harmonious concert" with Powers towards whom we are playing the part of dog-in-the-manger.
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