Show DIVIDING UP ASIA I Is Now Parceled Out Among Russia England and China Asia today is practically parceled between be-tween three powers Russia holds all Northern Asia China occupies Eastern Asia Great Britain is dominant in Southern Asia Russia comes nearest being alone in the tract over which its powers extends From the Pacific to the Baltic it has no rivals and its advance has met with opposition only as it began to extend southward near to English or eastward over territory tributary to China In neither direction has it made any advance since these powers protested and it has returned to China territory in lit once occupied by Russian troops the only backward step they have taken in Central Asia in a century China is not alone on the eastern coast but its position posi-tion at itscenter is unquestioned and the instant France began to press northward to a point which threatened the southern Chinese coast China Interposed a resistance resist-ance which was effectual England is still less alone on the southern south-ern coast of Asia but not less supreme For a century it has been a cardinal point of British policy in the east that no strong European rival should be permitted on the Indian ocean When Louis XVI began be-gan and Napoleon III completed the acquisition ac-quisition of Tonquin it was undoubtedly with the expectation of acquiring all of the great peninsula of farther India comparable in extent to Hindostan though insignificant in value As long as the French colony remained as it is now for nearly half a century a mere strip along the eastern face of this peninsula albeit a strip as large as New York Pennsylvania Penn-sylvania and Ohio with a population of nineteen million England has not interfered inter-fered Nearly ten years ago when M Voisson now French consul in this city and the French consul at Mandalay began be-gan a policy likely to lead to French annexation an-nexation Lord Dufferin promptly acquired ac-quired the regions and the French representative repre-sentative was left as French representatives representa-tives have been but too often from the days of Dupleix down without adequate support at home To the present movement of France as far a it is aimed at the lower MeKong river legitimately the back country of Cambodia neither England nor China can object The acquisition of this region still leaves Tonquin and Cambodia mere coast colonies without continental relations rela-tions Entering the region on the Upper MeKong still more ascending the Menam and occupying Bangkok is another an-other matter This tract opens a great native trade highway to South China which only needs t be cleared of the I savage hill tribes which bar the way to become the scene of as brisk a trade as it had 100 or 500 years ago French influence influ-ence and supremacy over Siam will confer I con-fer a strip of valuable sea coast on the Indian ocean It gives control of the natural waterways by the aid of which the Craw canal will in no distant day cross the Malayan isthmus I creates a i colony sufficiently large when Siam is i joined to Tonqnin Annam and Cambodia to give France a right to epeak in the I affairs of Southern Asia Practically this will introduce a fourth power into the control of Asia Great Britain may or may not be ready to go to war on this issue I is impossible to say But it is perfectly clear that small as the original cause may be and trivial Siam by the side of the great interests involved in a war between France and England yet the issue raised is one on which English Eng-lish public opinion wonld justify an English ministry in going to war No ministry however would risk such a war i it could be avoided There is besides be-sides the long experience of two centuries centu-ries which shows that time in Asia is apt to rob France of all the advantages the energies of her agents gain I England merely trusts to this a quarter of 1 cen turyWill probably find her for l the presentadvance of France still one of thethree powers which divide Asia among them Philadelphia Press t i 4 I if u R t > J > > < |