CHAPTER VIII
ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
That the present Great War and its solutions will have a lasting effect on the future of Asia and the Pacific Ocean as an international highway is clearly discerned by the leading eastern Asiatic powers. Both have therefore prepared for representation in the final peace council. The late action of China is peculiarly significant. It nominally entered the war in order to safeguard its national future. China was unwilling that its interests in the peace conference should be abandoned to the great European powers. China is a belligerent because it does not intend that the final decisions of the peace conference in regard to the future of the Orient shall go by default. In this action Chinese statesmen have acted astutely. The time has doubtless come for China to cry halt to European aggressions. These aggressions have gone further than is consistent with the interests of America. America has a supreme interest in Eastern Asia, the "open door." The success of the "open-door" policy demands that eastern Asia, in common with the rest of the world, shall be left to govern itself consistently with the general law of nations. The abstract right of the Chinese to govern themselves can no longer be ignored. As an American doctrine it is rapidly coming to the fore. The right of the Chinese to govern themselves is as well founded as the right of Americans to govern themselves, and by Americans it cannot be safely challenged . The American Government at Washington has been theoretically consistent in upholding the plea of "Asia for the Asiatics"; but it has lacked the power and will to enforce either the integrity of China or the "open-door" policy.
The "open-door" policy was first pronounced by the American secretary of state, John Hay, in 1899. The "open door" graphically prefigures little more than equal commercial opportunities for all foreigners, including Americans, in China and its dependencies or provinces. The doctrine of the "open door" is unfortunately much complicated by railway and other concessions granted by China to Europe. These cessions have diminished the sovereignty of China throughout extensive provinces of its empire. But the most formidable obstacles to the "open door" are the exclusive territorial ambitions of both Russia and Japan, not opposed by England or France. The Russians and the Japanese have virtually closed the "open door" in Mongolia and Manchuria. Their action is regarded in the Orient as fatal to the American plan of the "open door." Wherever Japan or Russia has encroached on Chinese territory the door is no longer left wide open.
The particular pretensions in China of Japan and Russia have hitherto been consistently supported by England and France of the present Entente powers without great regard for the American "open-door" policy. The history of Manchuria and the Chinchow-Aigun railway project would alone demonstrate the accuracy of this statement. It therefore becomes a serious problem for America, where, if anywhere, she is to look for an ally if she ever concludes to enforce her "open-door" policy in the Orient. If America concludes that she must enforce the "open door" by herself, and the time is fast approaching when the great States lying west of the Rocky Mountains will insist on some sort of Federal action about the "open door," it is evident that the military strength of America after the present war must be maintained even when it shall be placed on a peace footing. Otherwise America will be in a very exposed situation. Japan has promised to return to China after the war the territory of Kiao-chau, leased to Germany by China and now held by Japan. If the German protectorate is not so returned after the war, what is to be the sequence and significance of the refusal? Kiao-chau is a minor matter. America is one of the great powers having direct interests in the Pacific Ocean. With the exception of China and Japan, no other power has such extensive interests in the highways of the Pacific as America. The Pacific furnishes the western boundary of the United States, and the greater trade of the vast region of America lying west of the Rocky Mountains will sooner or later be over the Pacific with the Orient. The territorial interests of England and France in China are not comparable with those of America. The real interests of England and France are in southern Asia and in the southern Pacific. How America is to safeguard effectually its particular interests in China and the Pacific is destined to be one of the greatest problems for American statesmen.
It is obvious that the proper foreign policy of America turns upon two great principles, the Monroe Doctrine and the "open door." The practical application of the Monroe Doctrine is confined to the Western Hemisphere; the "open door" to the Eastern. Unless America is prepared to enforce both, it would have been more conducive to the peace of America had they never been formulated. The safety and the prosperity of America are, however, so intimately concerned with both policies that they cannot be abandoned. Therefore America must be prepared to enforce them whenever they are flagrantly assailed, or America will lose its rightful place as a great power.
America has become a great nation by reason of its natural resources, its constantly augmenting population, and its ever-growing commerce. The natural resources will cease to be developed, the population and the commerce of the country will cease to grow, if neglected by the Government at Washington; they require an intelligent and an energetic national policy for their proper conservation. American merchants are free to seek the protection of any more powerful government, and if America neglects its own merchants, they will seek a more splendid flag. American commerce will inevitably follow her merchants. It is essential, therefore, that the foreign policy of the United States shall be made to measure up to its responsibilities if the country is to continue permanently successful and powerful. Unless a nation coöperates closely with its merchants and fosters their foreign commerce by every legitimate means in its power, national prosperity will surely cease, and political decadence follow. There can be no successful domestic commerce in a country where the foreign commerce is not intelligently promoted by the Government.
The acquisition of the islands of the Pacific now under American dominion was pursuant to the best national policy. Hawaii, Samoa, Guam, and the Philippines are not only important points of call, but important protected refuges for American shipping in the Pacific. The retention by America of these islands does not violate the principle of "Asia for the Asiatics." None of them was acquired from an Asiatic power. America is a co-owner of the shores of the Pacific, and one of the largest. In the distant future its commerce on the Pacific will far surpass in importance to America that of the Atlantic side. The future of American commerce forbids America to neglect or to abandon its rightfully acquired island possessions in the Pacific. No European power, indeed no Asiatic power, questions the right of America to the Pacific islands which have passed under its flag. It holds them by a completely valid title, and it must not part with them, or it will be false to its trust and to the future good of the American nation.
America, unlike England, has never sought territorial possessions remote from its proper shores. Every acquisition of outlying lands has had direct reference to the proper sphere of American influence and to the immediate interests of its domestic territories. Had the Philippines been owned by China or Japan, America would not have acquired them. They were ceded to America by a European power in deference to the superior interests of America in the trade of the Pacific. America, unlike the European powers, has never sought any territory or "sphere of influence" on the Asiatic mainland. The American title to the Philippines is not derogatory to any Asiatic power. The islands are rightfully American and they are a tremendous and natural auxiliary to the long future of the rich trade between Asia and America. If the Philippines are abandoned by America, the descent of America into the ranks of the decadent and nerveless powers will be rapid and certain. Asia is not impressed by a foreign power which exhibits neither strength nor consistency, for Asiatics are quick to realize that without these qualities no nation can be either successful or permanent.