i6 
Land & Water March 21, 191 8 
America and the Far East: By J. D. Whelpley 
THJ-: (HUSO of the apparent hesitancy in Washington 
in giving a mandate to Japan to enter Siberia is 
twofold. The Washington (lovernment has clung 
persistently to the liope tliat real democracy 
would triumph in Russia, and long after other 
Governments had presumably abandoned Russia to the 
Russians, messages of cheer and comfort, coupled with 
offers of material assistance, came to Petrograd from America. 
It will be with real reluctance that President Wilson will 
commit the Government of the i:nited States to any plan 
involving possible armed conflict with the Russian people ; 
which, of course, is what a Japanese advance into Siberia 
might mean in the end. There is also an American principle 
of foreign policy at stake, for the United States Government 
has for many years used all its diplomatic power to give an 
international character to all foreign movements in the Far 
East. At Peking, in Manchuria, Mongolia, and Siberia 
many enterprises have been undertaken by Japan in con- 
junction with the Western Powers, so far as those Powers 
were able to secure a part of the responsibility, and no Power 
has been more alive to this situation than the United States. 
The Trans-Siberian Railroad 
To acquiesce in the advance of Japanese armies over the 
Trans-Siberian railroad, unaccompanied by military repre- 
sentatives from the West, would be a distinct departure. 
If it is agreed upon in Washington, it will be an act of expedi- 
ency dictated by the military situation in France and trans- 
port difficulties the world over. Japan is on the spot, so to 
speak, with a great navy, an army of a million and a half of 
men, and comparatively little else on hand to engage either 
the naval or the military energies of the nation. To let 
Japan undertake this job — not such an easy one, either — is 
the obvious course. Japanese statesmen say that they 
require no mandate from America to go ahead ; but American 
wishes would have great weight with the Allies, to whom 
Japan looks for the word to go, and the deciding word lies 
apparently with President Wilson and his Cabinet. He will 
be guided bj' Allies' counsel, however, for the war is now being 
fought as a single enterprise. 
Americans are wonderfully well informed as regards 
Siberia ; probably better informed than the people of 
Western Europe. For many years American engineers have 
been developing Siberian resources; American industrial 
organisations have been successfully cultivating Siberian 
trade ; and an enormous amount of publicity has been given 
in America to the economic possibilities of the near future 
in that country of amazing potential wealth. It has been 
said that two United States of America could be laid out 
west of Vladivostok, and the American who travels the 
nearly eight thousand miles from the Pacific coast to Moscow 
needs to look occasionally" at the people to disabuse his 
mind of the impression that he is still in the middle or north- 
western part of his own country. In geography, climate, 
and soil, Siberia is very much a replica of a large part of 
North America, with the advantage, strange to relate, of 
better water supply, more timber, and a less variable climate 
on the side of Siberia. 
With the peaceful people of Siberia the world has no 
quarrel, nor is it intended that any armed foreign nation 
shall establish itself in their country to the disadvantage of 
the population or to its own exclusive advantage. This, 
indeed, may be said of the whole of Russia, for Germany has 
raised the issue, and America and the Allies must and will 
meet it successfully in time. There is a wonderful clarity, 
positiveness, and unanimity of opinion as to Russia among 
the American people, and it is summed up by the New York 
Times when it says : — 
Germany must be compelled to withdraw from the Russian 
provinces she has seized. That is a war aim which the AlUes 
cannot too promptly proclaim, and it is a purpose to which they 
must inflexibly adhere. It is not alone the rescue of Russia 
that is involved : it is the safety of civiUsation. If Germany is 
allowed to retain her grip over Russia she will emerge from the 
war victorious beyond even her own plan and imagining, for she 
will be in a position to build up an irresistible mihtary power 
and enforce her will upon the world. It would be the rankest 
perfidy to talk of peace or think of peace with Germany on any 
terms that would permit or condone the occupation of Russian 
territory. It would be the abandonment of the great purpose of 
the war. The Allies must again positively declare that they 
will fight Germany until she withdraws from Russia, and that 
they will give no thought to peace until she does so and makes 
peace upon terms determined by the Allies. The one supreme 
aim IS to destroy Germany's war-power plans. Until that is 
accomplished, prating about peace at conferences, whether of 
working men. of SociaUsts, or of Pacifists, is treason to the great 
cause. The war must'go on until the end for which the Allies 
took up arms is achieved. 
Wlien Mr. Barnes, the Labour Minister of the British 
Cabinet, in speaking of shipbuilding, said: "America is 
failing us so far as shipbuilding is concerned." it is to be 
regretted that he did not expand his statement to cover the 
real situation. His remark was made in connection with 
some estimates as to the shortcomings of British shipbuilding, 
and it was to emphasise the seriousness of the situation that 
he made the reference to America. The only failure that 
can be attributed to the American shipbuilding industry is 
that it has failed to satisfy the high expectations of the 
general public here and even at home. American reputation 
abroad for great industrial output has become almost a 
belief in modern miracles among those who read of the 
building of motor cars at the rate of "one a minute" and 
of other standardised outputs. 
In 1916 the United States lagged far behind other countries 
in her merchant marine. Most of her foreign trade was 
carried in foreign ships, and shipbuilding in America was 
comparatively a minor industry. The demand for ships, 
owing to the war, stimulated this industry considerably from 
1915 onward, but it was not until less than a year ago that 
America really entered into the business of supplying the 
world-deficiency in sea-going tonnage. In a few months the 
whole situation has changed, and at various places on 
the North American Continent have sprung into being the 
greatest shipyards the world has ever seen. Some of them 
have even begun to launch ships, and with every passing 
week the situation is improving. These great shipyards had 
to be built before ships could be constructed, and the material 
for these ships had to be assembled before keels could be laid. 
The day is rapidly approaching when the extent of American 
preparedness will be apparent to all in the vast output of 
finished product, and there will be no disappointment in 
this except to the enemy. 
It has been said of American preparation for war that 
no one can possibly realise its magnitude at the present 
time, but that when the full possible output materialises the 
world will be staggered with the totals. In all the long 
months from August 4th, 1914, to April 6th, 1917, when j;he 
rest of the world was at war, America made no preparation 
for the day that was to come. This was due to social, 
political, and legislative difficulties that blocked the way. 
Following American intervention, there was a period of 
mental effort necessary to secure the needed realisation and 
consequent concentration of energy, a period that was all 
the longer because of there being no danger of immediate 
invasion by an enemy. The machinery of war in all its- 
phases had to be created. It is now well on towards com- 
pletion, and has all been done in a very few months. It 
still creaks slightly in its joints ; but is finding itself with 
marvellous rapidity, notwithstanding a clamour of tongues 
always in evidence in a self-governing democracy, but not 
without its usefulness. 
Above the clamour of tongues can be heard the clang of 
the hammers, the sound of marching feet, and the cheers of 
the American soldiers as they land on French soil, and all in 
constantly increasing volume. No criticism of America that 
is heard in Allied countries equals in volume or vigour a 
hundredth part of the fierce controversies that now rage 
over alleged American shortcomings in Washington and 
elsewhere throughout the country. 
American labour is solidly for the war, and to no confer- 
ence of pacifist tendencies or to no gatherings where repre- 
sentatives of the enemy people \*ill be found, will American- 
labour organisations send delegates. The people of America 
are now confronted with much the same problem of how to 
live as are the people of the AUied ^countries. Scarcity and 
high prices demand their increased toll of American endur- 
ance and earning power. It is well for the Allied peoples 
to bear in mind, however, that the food and supply shortages 
in America are caused largely by the great effort being made 
to send more to the people of the Allies. It is a shorta^ge 
created voluntarily by the American people that the Allies 
can get on with the war in safety. Self-interest dictates 
this voluntary rationing, it is true ; but the appeal is 
naturally not as compelling as it would be if supplies were 
actually short. In the midst of plenty, America is helping 
to ration the world on an equal basis by plain Hving. This^ 
is fine testimony as to the spirit in which the Americaa 
people have cast their lot with their Allies across the sea. 
