“THE DONKEY IS A PATIENT ANIMAL.”—W. J. Bryan.
New York World
The Japanese Alliance and Elihu Root
“The people of the United States hold for Japan a peculiar feeling of regard and friendship” wrote Theodore Roosevelt after the visit to himself and Elihu Root of Baron Kogoro Takahira, Japanese Ambassador, last September. After much that has seemed unnecessarily subterranean in the negotiations between Takahira and the Secretary of State, admissions have been wormed from official sources that these gentlemen have consummated a pact that is variously regarded as a miracle of deft diplomacy; a dangerous entangling alliance or as a farcical declaration of non-binding intentions.
Subjected to examination, the “agreement” covers the following main points, stated in brief:
A mutual wish to “encourage the free and peaceful development of their commerce in the Pacific.”
Since the imperialistic idea is that peace is best preserved by being prepared for war, this “peaceful development” inevitably means to the United States a vastly increased naval burden. No less if Japan be honest than if she be insincere.
The second article declares for the maintenance of the existing status quo and the “defense of the principle of equal opportunity for commerce and industry in China.”
Has the Chinese boycott of Japanese goods anything to do with this? Takahira or Marquis Katsura, Japanese premier, please answer.
The third article obligates each nation to respect the territorial possessions in the Pacific of the other.