Peril To British Empire.

New York Times 100 years ago today, May 24, 1913:
Aiding Japan Against America Would Be Fatal, Says The Spectator
By Marconi Transatlantic Wireless Telegraph to The New York Times.
    LONDON, May 23.— In an article, discussing the possibility of conflict between the United States and Japan and the view that Great Britain as an ally of Japan would be drawn into the struggle, The Spectator says:
    "We admit that the results, which would flow from such an event, are terribly grave to contemplate, Englishmen would be fighting with Asiatics against their kith and kin, and the sympathy of the British dominions, particularly Canada and Australia, would unquestionably be very strongly with the Americans.
    "We doubt whether the empire could survive such an outrage to the feelings of a large and important part of its white population.
    "No wonder, then, that persons who fear that such a war may come about are plunged in anxiety."
    After pointing out that a large part of the anxiety is the result of loose acquaintance with the text of the Anglo-Japanese treaty and expressing the opinion that only the choice of a wholly superfluous line of action by Americans could bring about circumstances, in which Great Britain would be obliged by treaty to take her place beside Japan, The Spectator continues:
    "We do not exaggerate, we are sure, in saying that opinion in the British Empire would never tolerate taking up arms by Great Britain to help Japan against the United States. We may put it this way: That the United States Government owes it to civilization that such conditions, as would make operative the defensive clauses of the alliance between Great Britain and Japan, shall never be allowed to arise."

    LONDON, May 23.— The Saturday Review urges Great Britain to stand by the alliance with Japan "because America is working for supremacy in the Pacific on lines that are unfriendly both to Great Britain and Japan."