<SPAN name="XXVIII"></SPAN>
<h1 align="center" style="margin-top: 2em;font-variant: small-caps">Chapter XXVIII</h1>
<h2 align="center" style="margin-top: 2em;font-variant: small-caps">An International Crisis</h2>
<p>The Administrator did nothing towards reducing the
army which, including those in the Philippines and
elsewhere, totalled five hundred thousand. He thought
this hardly sufficient considering international conditions,
and one of his first acts was to increase the number
of men to six hundred thousand and to arm and equip
them thoroughly.</p>
<p>For a long period of years England had maintained
relations with the United States that amounted to
an active alliance, but there was evidence that she
had under discussion, with her old-time enemy, Germany,
a treaty by which that nation was to be allowed a free
hand in South America.</p>
<p>In return for this England was to be conceded all
German territory in Africa, and was to be allowed
to absorb, eventually, that entire continent excepting
that part belonging to France.</p>
<p>Japan, it seemed, was to be taken into the agreement
and was to be given her will in the East. If she desired
the Philippines, she might take them as far as European
interference went. Her navy was more powerful than
any the United States could readily muster in the far
Pacific, and England would, if necessary, serve notice
upon us that her gunboats were at Japan’s disposal
in case of war.</p>
<p>In return, Japan was to help in maintaining British
supremacy in India, which was now threatened by the
vigorous young Republic of China.</p>
<p>The latter nation did not wish to absorb India herself,
but she was committed to the policy of “Asia
for the Asiatics,” and it did not take much
discernment to see that some day soon this would come
about.</p>
<p>China and Japan had already reached an agreement concerning
certain matters of interest between them, the most
important being that Japan should maintain a navy
twice as powerful as that of China, and that the latter
should have an army one-third more powerful than that
of Japan. The latter was to confine her sphere of
influence to the Islands of the Sea and to Korea,
and, in the event of a combined attack on Russia,
which was contemplated, they were to acquire Siberia
as far west as practicable, and divide that territory.
China had already by purchase, concessions and covert
threats, regained that part of her territory once
held by England, Germany and France. She had a powerful
array and a navy of some consequence, therefore she
must needs to be reckoned with.</p>
<p>England’s hold upon Canada was merely nominal,
therefore, further than as a matter of pride, it was
of slight importance to her whether she lost it or
not. Up to the time of the revolution, Canada had been
a hostage, and England felt that she could at no time
afford a rupture with us. But the alluring vision
that Germany held out to her was dazzling her statesmen.
Africa all red from the Cape to the Mediterranean
and from Madagascar to the Atlantic was most alluring.
And it seemed so easy of accomplishment. Germany
maintained her military superiority, as England, even
then, held a navy equal to any two powers.</p>
<p>Germany was to exploit South America without reference
to the Monroe Doctrine, and England was to give her
moral support, and the support of her navy, if necessary.
If the United States objected to the extent of declaring
war, they were prepared to meet that issue. Together,
they could put into commission a navy three times
as strong as that of the United States, and with Canada
as a base, and with a merchant marine fifty times
as large as that of the United States, they could convey
half a million men to North America as quickly as Dru
could send a like number to San Francisco. If Japan
joined the movement, she could occupy the Pacific
Slope as long as England and Germany were her allies.</p>
<p>The situation which had sprung up while the United
States was putting her own house in order, was full
of peril and General Dru gave it his careful and immediate
attention.</p>
<p>None of the powers at interest knew that Dru’s
Government had the slightest intimation of what was
being discussed. The information had leaked through
one of the leading international banking houses, that
had been approached concerning a possible loan for
a very large amount, and the secret had reached Selwyn
through Thor.</p>
<p>Selwyn not only gave General Dru this information,
but much else that was of extreme value. Dru soon
came to know that at heart Selwyn was not without
patriotism, and that it was only from environment and
an overweening desire for power that had led him into
the paths he had heretofore followed. Selwyn would
have preferred ruling through the people rather than
through the interests and the machinations of corrupt
politics, but he had little confidence that the people
would take enough interest in public affairs to make
this possible, and to deviate from the path he had
chosen, meant, he thought, disaster to his ambitions.</p>
<p>Dru’s career proved him wrong, and no one was
quicker to see it than Selwyn. Dru’s remarkable
insight into character fathomed the real man, and,
in a cautious and limited way, he counseled with him
as the need arose.</p>
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