230 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



realise that Russia was behind the 

 Mongols until too late. The Tsar's 

 Government has signed a treaty with 

 autonomous Mongolia, guaranteeing 

 the new State and upholding its de- 

 crees. China is locked out of her 

 natural sphere of expansion in Mon- 

 golia as absolutely as she is from Aus- 

 tralia. The Mongols have always been 

 partial to Russia, and prefer her domi- 

 nation infinitely to Chinese occupation. 

 Only a war in which Russia is defeated 



China and Russia is inevitable, and 

 that in order to prevent China being 

 crushed, as m her unprepared state she 

 is bound to be, Japan will have to be 

 prepared to assist her. At present it 

 IS true Russia and Japan are in close 

 alliance, but Sun Yat Sen and other 

 prominent Chinese are constantly m 

 Japan, endeavouring to convince Jap- 

 anese statesmen that when the inevit- 

 able clash comes they must be on the 

 side of the Eastern Republic, not on 



can open Mongolia to Chinese colonisa- that of their former foe, who they see 



tion Thibet is also closed to the slowly absorbing Asia. Apparently the 



Chinese, Manchuria is irrevocably lost, mission of these Chinese patriots has 



China is walled in, and it looks as if the been successful, otherwise the increase 



beginning of the Republic marks the in armaments would hardly have been 



end of China as a world power. Either 

 that or she must prepare to fight and 

 burst through the wall which now rings 

 her round. The far Eastern problem 

 is one beside which that of the Balkans 

 fades into insignificance. 



Japan's Predicament. 



The recent political troubles and 

 changes in Japan have been due to the 

 struggles between the mihtary expan- the owning of land by aliens. There is 

 sionist party and the anti-militarists. intense feeling being shown on both 

 Although it is SIX years since the war sides, and President Wilson has urged 

 with Russia came to an end, Japan is the Californian Legislature to withdraw 

 still kept on a war footing, and the cost the bill, but it refuses absolutely. 



proposed. 



Japan and America. 



Every Australian must follow with 

 intense interest the result of the pro- 

 test by Japan against the anti-Japanese 

 legislation of California. That State 

 has followed our example, although she 

 has not gone so far as we have, the 

 present legislation dealing only with 



is becoming more than the people can 

 bear. They are taxed up to 25 per 

 cent, of their gross incomes, and con- 

 sequently the poorer classes are in dire 

 distress. Instead of reducing taxes 

 and getting the army and navy on to 

 a peace footing. Ministers proposed to 

 add two more divisions to the army, 

 some fifty thousand men, in order to 

 strengthen Japan's position in Korea, 

 and be prepared for a possible break- 

 up of the Chinese Republic. For the 

 moment the anti-military party has 

 been successful, but far-sighted states- 

 men m Nippon, watching events in 

 Asia, reahse that a conflict between 



Many Americans, especially on the 

 Pacific slope, are convinced that ere 

 long Japan will descend upon the fer- 

 tile valleys of California, just as many 

 here regard the Japanese peril as an 

 ever-present danger. Japan at present 

 has far too much trouble within her 

 own boundaries to worry about Aus- 

 tralia. Her recent revocation of the 

 prohibition against Korean emigration, 

 and her encouragement of these people 

 settling m Manchuria, looks much as if 

 she were engaged in creating a claim 

 to that land later on, a claim which 

 would keep her activities pretty keenly 

 employed. 



