644 



The Review of Reviews. 



ISOLATION OR 'ENTANGLEMENT; 



At a time when ententes arc the order of the day, and 

 tlic suggestion is even made that they might be 

 di'cpened into alHances, it is well to have such a paper 

 as that contributed under the above title by " Demo- 

 critus " to the Fortnightly Review. It is a very thought- 

 ful challenge to the presuppositions of our present 

 foreign policy. The writer laments that we have aban- 

 doned the impregnable position of isolation for the 

 entanglement of ententes. He says : — 



Kngland was unperturbed wliile Germany founded a Colonial 

 Dominion, and France added hundreds of thousands of square 

 miles to her oversea possessions. Last year we were, it seems, 

 ready to go to war to prevent Germany acquiring a mud-hole in 

 Morocco and a second-rate port on the Congo co.-ist. In the 

 'eighties and 'nineties we could allow Germany to establish 

 herself in East Africa, in the Cameroons and Togoland, in 

 llamaraland, and in China, and France to paint a huge area 

 with her colours on the map of North-West Africa and in 

 Further India. We were even willing to let Russia get down 

 to the open waters of the Pacific if she could. The policy of 

 bottling up great Powers had not then been adopted. 



Thus, unhampered by damaging obligations, and dependent 

 on no embarrassed and reluctant associates, we could act freely 

 and promptly whenever any of our rights were invaded. We 

 had no allies to consult, we had no elaborate calculations of the 

 European balance to make. We choose our own arena for the 

 conflict, and that is the sea, where we fight to win. Compare 

 the tranquillity with which we regarded French animosity in the 

 'nineties with the nervous anxiety with which we have been 

 watching Germany during the past seven years. But, in truth, 

 there is reason for our "jumpiness." France, as I have said, 

 could not really hurt us. Germany can ; not so much because 

 she has been strengthened by her fleet, but because we have 

 been weakened by our alliances. 



Even granting the extreme Teutophobe position, the 

 writer asks, What do we gain by the policy of Conti- 

 nental alliances, by Lord Lansdowne's and Sir Edward 

 Grey's departure from the system of Lord Salisbury ? — 

 " So long as we remain in isolation we are ' on velvet.' 

 While she has to reckon with us alone, Germany is 

 helpless. She could not get at us. That being the situa- 

 tion. Germany could not afford to quarrel with us." 

 Instead of gain, the writer evidently thinks that we 

 have suffered damage through our alliances. He says :— 



Our alliance with Japan enabled that Power to achieve its 

 defeat of Russia, secure from interference, and to establish 

 itself on the mainland of Asia. Our (virtual) alliance with 

 France has placed the Republic in possession of another great 

 dominion in Africa ; our alliance with Russia, it seems, is to 

 pave the way for a Muscovite absorption of Persia. But what 

 have we gained by it all? How is Britain the better, the 

 richer, or the stronger for these acquisitions and annexations 

 obtained by otheis with our assistance and encour.agement ! 



To us, as the rulers of 300 million Asiatics, the Awakening 

 of Asia has lirought no advantage ; we have no reason to 

 rejoice in the defeat of a white and Christian Power by an 

 Oriental people. The victorious campaign of Japan, which 

 Lord Lansdowne must have anticipated and desired when he 

 agreed to the Treaty, has been of no profit to us. We are none 

 the better because Russia, definitely cut off from access to the 

 ice-free harbours of the Pacific, has a more impelling motive 

 than ever (o force her way down to the open waters of the 

 Persian Gulf. 



Tlic writer thinks that it cannot be too strongly 

 insisted upon that with Eraiice as an ally we are in a 

 worse position than with France neutral. Had wc with 



France fought Germany over Morocco, we could not, 

 with our sinall army, have saved France from defeat 

 at the hands of the overwlielming German forces. It 

 was this knowledge which kept the French from 

 pressing the Morocco dispute to a rupture. 



Then, too, " If we had gone to war with Germany in 

 the summer of igii, it would have been on grounds 

 which were absolutelv unknown, and which were never 

 avowed to Parliament and the constituencies. The 

 net result of all is that France has gained Morocco and 

 Germany has gained a large slice of the French Congo, 

 while Italy is compensating herself by endeavouring to 

 seize Tripoli. We have obtained nothing except dan- 

 gerous friction with Germany, a network of entangling 

 engagements, a constant sense of insecurity and uncer- 

 tainty, and a portentous expansion of armaments." 

 " Democritus " advises us to withdraw from the orbit 

 of Continental commitments and concentrate on our 

 Imperial and domestic tasks. 



In the same magazine " Democritus " will find in 

 another paper a ground for his contention. For Captain 

 Battine, asking how to postpone an Anglo-German 

 war, answers, '" By mobilising from 250,000 to 300,000 

 British troops for European service." For a naval 

 power without land forces, he says, goes the way of 

 Tyre and Carthage, Holland and Venice. 



THE JAPANESE AND SOUTH SEA 

 ISLANDS. 



The Round Table for June, in its interesting quar- 

 terly survey of the British Empire, discusses the advance 

 of the Japanese in the Pacific. A new Japanese steam- 

 ship service is to be established from one of the 

 Japanese ports or from Singapore, to open up a 

 trade with the South Sea Islands. According to one 

 informant : — 



Japanese schooners regularly visited outlying islands, from 

 which they gathered bird skins and anything else of value. 

 Their plan was, wlien they came to an uninhaliited island, to 

 leave a few members of their crew there to collect the products 

 of the place, and to call back for them in two or three months' 

 time. 



The American, Dr. Dorsey, has also reported : — 



I know also from personal experience that every ship that 

 conies south to practically any of the islands of the Northern 

 Pacific brings with it one or two, or perhaps more, Japanese. 

 And they arc not poor, ignorant, uneducated Japanese. It is 

 almost safe to s.ay that there are no Japanese of this type. The 

 men who are coming south are clever men, many of tlicm skilled 

 tradesmen, many of them university men, pretty well all of them 

 soldiers who fought in the Russo-Japanese war. I know that 

 in the Admiralty Islands, for instance, there is a Japanese who 

 is quite a little rajah in his way. lie has his steam launch and 

 his little fleet, and he flits about from island to island just as 

 though he were the Governor. 



There can be no doubt about it that one of Japan's ideals is 

 to gain sway over the trade of the Pacific. That is a very 

 laudable ambition, and wc cannot objict to it. Australia cannot 

 object to it either. The only atliluiic that she can adopt is to 

 keep awake to sec that no other cud is in view, and, .anyhow, 

 to prevent Japan from grabbing all llie trade. 



