RUSSIA AND JAPAN AND "THE COMITY OF CHRISTENDOM."
Sih,—In the very interesting and thoughtful article on "The True 'Yellow Peril ' " in your last issue you confess to a lingering feeling in favour of Russia as against Japan on the ground of "a certain comity of Christendom which has influenced Europe a thousand years." Such a feeling is not unnatural, but I venture to think that with regard to the Far East it is not justified by our experience of the attitude of Russia and of Japan respectively towards the questions which most intimately concern "the comity of Christendom." will not dwell upon the attitude adopted by Russia during the early stages of the " Boxer " movement, when, hugging herself with the belief that it was directed mainly against the Western European Powers, she repeatedly refused to support the diplomatic representations made at Pekin on behalf of the British, French, German, Italian, and American Governments;
my meaning. •
. When the moment arrived for the Conference of Ministers at Pekin to decide upon the punishments which the Chinese Government was to mete out to the authors of the atrocious massacres in the provinces, where some two hundred and fifty European men, women, and children, most of them connected with Christian missions, had been done to death during the previous summer, Russia suddenly seceded from the rest of the Powers and refused to take any common action with them on the point. The British Ambassador at St. Petersburg was instructed to remonstrate on the subject with the Russian Government, and Count Lamsdorff, having no avowable explanation to offer, bluntly dismissed the question of "the murders of the missionaries as a subject in which Russia is not interested" (Sir Charles Scott to the Marquis of Lansdowne, March 15th, 1901, China Blue-book, No. 6, 1901, p. 118). The real explana- tion, which Count Lamsdorff naturally preferred not to give, was that at that moment Russia was pressing the fugitive Chinese Court at Singan-fu to ratify the Convention she had negotiated with Li Hung Chang for the purpose of confirm- ing her tenure of Manchuria, and she was anxious not to irritate the Dowager-Empress by joining in a demand for the punishment of her blood-stained protégés. Now there was another Power equally interested in the proposed Manchurian Convention, though its interest lay in preventing, and not in securing, its ratification, and therefore equally interested in preserving with Singan-fu the best relations possible in the circumstances. That Power was Japan; and as she did not profess to be a Christian Power, she might have been excused for adopting the same line as Russia, and declaring that the murder of Christian missionaries was a subject in which she also took no interest. But Japan realised that the issue was a much broader one,'and she refused to barter the higher interests of civilisation and humanity for a political consideration. She remained true to her allies, and ultimately the collective action of the Powers proved effectual in spite of Russia's desertion. Surely there can be little doubt that in this. instance Japan showed a truer appreciation than Russia of the duties which "the comity of Christendom" carries with it.-1 am, Sir, &c., FAR EAST.
FRANCE AND THE VATICAN.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTAT01%."]
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