334 The National Geographic Magazine 



and that should peace unfortunately be 

 broken it will have the effect of restrict- 

 ing the area .of hostilities. ' ' 



Here you have in the fewest possible 

 words the spirit that animated Japan no 

 less than Great Britain. Various com- 

 ments have been made by different 

 writers and statesmen as to the effect 

 of the alliance upon the world. It has 

 been asserted by some newspapers that 

 this alliance is directly responsible for 

 the present war. 



Let them say whatever they choose, 

 but a conscientious study of the docu- 

 ment itself cannot fail to convince any 

 fair-minded man that these allegations 

 are entirely groundless. The alliance 

 is purely peaceful and defensive. In 

 one of the passages of the dispatch 

 above referred to, Lord Lansdowne said 

 that "we join in entirely disclaiming 

 any aggressive tendencies." But you 

 must observe that the fact which made 

 Great Britain abandon her long cher- 

 ished traditional pride and policy of 

 " splendid isolation " is in itself a suffi- 

 cient proof that the situation in the Far 

 East was one of grave danger and de- 

 manded unusual precaution. It was 

 evident that Russian aggressions were 

 no mere phantoms, but w 7 ere terribly 

 real and threatening. 



These aggressions mainly called this 

 alliance into existence for the mutual 

 protection of the interests of the signa- 

 tories, and later forced Japan to take 

 up arms against her colossal neighbor 

 for the defense of her rights and her 

 very existence. 



The primary objects of the alliance 

 are the maintenance of the integrity of 

 the Chinese Empire and the mainte- 

 nance of the open-door policy in China, 

 the policy which was conceived and so 

 ardently advocated by the British states- 

 men, and which was so skillfully and 

 happily inaugurated as a matter of in- 

 ternational concern by one of the fore- 

 most statesmen and diplomats of our 

 day — Hon. John Hay — three years be- 



fore the conclusion of the Anglo- Japa- 

 nese alliance. In spite of all the adverse 

 criticisms emanating from unfriendly 

 sources, I confidently declare that all 

 the objects of the alliance have been 

 so far nobly and successfully accom- 

 plished. JJ^n 



By the recent course of events in the 

 Far East these conditions which immi- 

 nently menaced the integrity of the 

 Chinese Empire have largely been re- 

 moved and the ground for the open- 

 door policy has been made firmer. Were 

 it not for the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, 

 the war might have occurred in 1902, 

 when China demanded the evacuation 

 of Manchuria by Russia. It was in 

 fact delayed at least for some time, and 

 the area of hostilities has been quite 

 effectively restricted, since its outbreak, 

 by reason of this alliance, which has in 

 this respect received indirectly a very 

 strong support from the enlightened 

 policy pursued by the United States in 

 reference to China. 



To me it appears that the effect of 

 the alliance has given so much satisfac- 

 tion that, if the language used by the 

 President of the Victorian Club in his 

 invitation to this banquet extended to 

 the Japanese representative expressed 

 the sentiment of the British public — 

 which I believe and hope to be the 

 case — the renewal of that compact after 

 the expiration of the prescribed terms 

 is inevitable. 



We are anxious, with Great Britain 

 and the United States, to see China be- 

 come rich, strong, and self-repecting. 

 We have our own salvation to work out 

 in our own way. We wanted simply 

 to be let alone and to settle the problems 

 that demanded solution. We were not 

 animated by territorial greed or lust of 

 conquest. We preferred the conquest 

 of peace to the victories of war. We 

 know that the Far East has a great 

 future, and the greater the future the 

 better for all the world. Japan could 

 hope to gain nothing by war and had 



