26 Mr. John Horner on 



free Pacific seaboard. The trans-Siberian Railway was built 

 politically for Russia, commercially and practically for the whole 

 of Europe. The trade which Russia had opened up in Asia was 

 carried on in a greater degree by Europeans. The railway gave a 

 great stimulus to thaftrade, and the result of the present war 

 would probably lead to the abandonment by Europe of a com- 

 merce which had every prospect of being large and profitable. A 

 momentary look at the commercial relations of the two con- 

 tending Powers with other nations would serve to explain what 

 was meant. Russia was free to foreign enterprise, as free as 

 Britain or the United States. Most important manufacturing 

 interests were owned by these countries and other nations, notably 

 France, Germany, and Belgium. Flax and cotton manufacturing 

 concerns, machine works, and other commercial and industrial 

 enterprises were owned and controlled by different nationalities, 

 every facility being given and every protection accorded. Besides 

 this, Russia was a good customer to other European States, con- 

 suming some ^70,000,000 sterling of goods annually. What of 

 Japan ? European trade there was very limited. The Japanese 

 were rapidly becoming dangerous competitors. Commercially, 

 Japan was closed to foreign settlement. No foreigner was 

 allowed to own land or engage in industrial pursuits. The natural 

 imitative faculty of the Japanese enabled them to produce goods 

 of European design, stamped with European trade marks, perhaps 

 not yet equal to European standard, but quite good enough for 

 Asiatic consumption. Our vast floating capital, with loss of 

 interest and freight and insurance charges, was saved. A Jap 

 would live at one-fifth the cost of a European. Consider, then, 

 that Japan was making all and more than she needed for herself 

 how enormous were the advantages she had against her com- 

 petitors in Asiatic markets. They had often heard of the yellow 

 peril and of the possibility of the Mongol race one day dominating 

 the world. Did there not seem a possibility of Asia being com- 

 mercially dominated by the yellow race at no very distant period 

 of time. Once Corea and Manchuria got into the hands of Japan 



