indeed great and extensive.  On this account we must devote our most serious attention to the subject.  If, on the other hand, the Germans and Austrians should be crushed by the Allies, Germany will be deprived of her present status as a Federated State under a Kaiser.  The Federation will be disintegrated into separate states, and Prussia will have to be content with the status of a second-rate Power.  Austria and Hungary, on account of this defeat, will consequently be divided.  What their final fate shall be, no one would now venture to predict.  In the meantime Russia will annex Galicia and the Austrian Poland:  France will repossess Alsace and Lorraine:  Great Britain will occupy the German Colonies in Africa and the South Pacific; Servia and Montenegro will take Bosnia, Herzegovina and a certain portion of Austrian Territory; thus making such great changes in the map of Europe that even the Napoleonic War in 1815 could not find a parallel.

When these events take place, not only will Europe experience great changes, but we should not ignore the fact that they will occur also in China and in the South Pacific.  After Russia has replaced Germany in the territories lost by Germany and Austria, she will hold a controlling influence in Europe, and, for a long time to come, will have nothing to fear from her western frontier.  Immediately after the war she will make an effort to carry out her policy of expansion in the East and will not relax that effort until she has acquired a controlling influence in China.  At the same time Great Britain will strengthen her position in the Yangtsze Valley and prohibit any other country from getting a footing there.  France will do likewise in Yunnan province using it as her base of operations for further encroachments upon China and never hesitate to extend her advantages.  We must therefore seriously study the situation remembering always that the combined action of Great Britain, Russia, and France will not only affect Europe but that we can even foresee that it will also affect China.

Whether this combined action on the part of England, France and Russia is to terminate at the end of the war or to continue to operate, we can not now predict.  But after peace in Europe is restored, these Powers will certainly turn their attention to the expansion of their several spheres of interest in China, and, in the adjustment, their interests will most likely conflict with one another.  If their interests do not conflict, they will work jointly to solve the Chinese Question.  On this point we have not the least doubt.  If England, France and Russia are actually to combine for the coercion of China, what course is to be adopted by the Imperial Japanese Government to meet the situation?  What proper means shall we employ to maintain our influence and extend our interests within this ring of rivalry and competition?  It is necessary that we bear in mind the final results of the European War and forestall the trend