egions as opportunities
arise. Already in Shantung the same policy is being pursued and there
are indications that it is being thought of in Fuhkien; whilst the
infantry garrison which was quietly installed at Hankow--600 miles up
the Yangtsze river--at the time of the Revolution of 1911 is apparently
to be made permanent. Allowing her policy to be swayed by men who know
far too little of the sea, Japan stands in imminent danger of forgetting
the great lesson which Mahan taught, that for island-peoples sea-power
is everything and that land conquests which diminish the efficacy of
that power are merely a delusion and snare. Plunging farther and farther
into the vast regions of Manchuria and Mongolia which have been the
graves of a dozen dynasties, Japan is displaying increasing indifference
for the one great lesson which the war has yielded--the overwhelming
importance of the sea.[30] Necessarily guardian of the principles on
which intercourse in Asia is based, because she framed those principles
and fought for them and has built up great edifices under their
sanction, British sea-power--now allied for ever, let us hope, with
American power--nevertheless remains and will continue to remain, in
spite of what may be half-surreptitiously done to-day, the dominant
factor in the Far East as it is in the Far West. Withdrawn from view for
the time being, because of the exigencies of the hour and because the
Anglo-Japanese Alliance is still counted a binding agreement, Western
sea-power nevertheless stands there, a heavy cloud in the offing, full
of questionings regarding what is going on in the Orient, and fully
determined, let us pray, one day to receive frank answers. For the right
of every race, no matter how small or weak, to enjoy the inestimable
benefits of self-government and independence may be held to have been so
absolutely established that it is a mere question of time for the
doctrine not only to be universally accepted but to be universally
applied. In many cases, it is true, the claims of certain races are as
yet incapable of being expressed in practical state-forms; but where
nationalities have long been well-defined, there can be no question
whatsoever that a properly articulated autonomy must be secured in such
a way as to preclude the possibility of annexations.

Now although in their consideration of Asia it is notorious that Western
statesmen have not cared to keep in mind political concepts which have
becom