If the two nations joined hands--a hardly probable eventuality at present--it would become difficult for us to maintain an independent position between them.

The political rivalry between the two nations of yellow race must therefore be kept alive.

If they are antagonistic, they will both probably look for help against each other in their relations with Europe, and thus enable the European Powers to retain their possessions in Asia.
While the aspiring Great Powers of the Far East cannot at present directly influence our policy, Turkey--the predominant Power of the Near East--is of paramount importance to us.

She is our natural ally; it is emphatically our interest to keep in close touch with her.

The wisest course would have been to have made her earlier a member of the Triple Alliance, and so to have prevented the Turco-Italian War, which threatens to change the whole political situation, to our disadvantage.
Turkey would gain in two ways: she assures her position both against Russia and against England--the two States, that is, with whose hostility we have to reckon.