Show DJSMEMBERSHIP OF CHINA SURE A doleful picture of the helplessness of China Is given in the dispatches That country has no way to help Itself It has no army no navy it has no policy poli-cy no able men In position to do any helpful thing for their country As an instance it is said that the President of thc Board of Commerce is the boy who conveyed to the German Emperor the apology of China for the murder of his ambassador D ron von Ketteler nnd who was promoted because of his birth and prestige In having traveled around the world this lad has the final say on all matters proposed in his Board and he vetoed most of the propositions pro-positions made by the other members And It is the same thing in other departments de-partments of the Government The provincial officials all comment on the lack of able men they find in various positions of authority when they visit Peking s A pitiful picture is drawn of the Chinese Chi-nese Ministers going from one foreign legation to another imploring protection protec-tion for China without any thought of China helping herself And it I is added that There is absolutely no strong man among the ruling ministers minis-ters Wu Tingfang late Envoy to the United States and a very able man la put in a subordinate place and Is under suspicion for his liberal sentiments senti-ments He Is in despair for his country coun-try and considers that the partition of the empire among the European powers Is Inevitable All of which agrees precisely with our own Iew expressed some lime ago A nation which is so absolutely defenseless defense-less as Is China with undeveloped resources re-sources of such boundless extent and with a swarming population which can supply unlimited labor and material for soldiers In short a fat Juicy plum ready for the plucking J and ample to go aroundgIven such a prize and the nations swarming to Uie feast with a rapacity and ferociousness which a i pretended Christianity and clvlllvatlon i do not even fairly disguise and the result re-sult Is Inevitable In fact the partition parti-tion as we have pointed out and Is clearly evident in Russias encroachments encroach-ments Great Britains spheres of influence in-fluence and Germanys seizure has already begun It will never end so long as there Is a vestige of sovereignty sovereign-ty claimed by any Chinese authority Russia alreadY nractlcallv has Man churIn Mongolia and Tibet Great Britain has the predominance In the great valley of the YnngtseKlang but may have to divide with Germany or assure the Kaiser something that will suit him as well and France Is already dominant In the southern province prov-ince of Yunnan adjoining TonKing Great Britain will of course want Quangtung province opposite Hong kong and will have to compensate Germany probably by letting her take the whole of the valley of the bang ho Poor old China The empire is I falling fall-Ing to pieces from Internal decay And we believe that It will be better for the people to come under foreign rule than to continue In their old ways or In the present uncertainty the kindest thing to them too will be for the powers to divide the prey with the least possible friction both for themselves and for tho masses of tho population and enter en-ter at once upon their rule I |