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recognition of the wishes of the great Pan-American federation would be most
conducive to the continued peace of the world.
His empire includes all of Asia, and the islands of the Pacific as far east as
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75dW. The empire of Japan no longer exists, having been conquered and
absorbed by China over a hundred years ago. The Philippines are well
administered, and constitute one of the most progressive colonies of the Chinese
empire.
The emperor told me that the building of this great empire and the spreading of
enlightenment among its diversified and savage peoples had required all the best
efforts of nearly two hundred years. Upon his accession to the throne he had
found the labor well nigh perfected and had turned his attention to the
reclamation of Europe.
His ambition is to wrest it from the hands of the blacks, and then to attempt the
work of elevating its fallen peoples to the high estate from which the Great War
precipitated them.
I asked him who was victorious in that war, and he shook his head sadly as he
replied:
"Pan-America, perhaps, and China, with the blacks of Abyssinia," he said. "Those
who did not fight were the only ones to reap any of the rewards that are supposed
to belong to victory. The combatants reaped naught but annihilation. You have
seen--better than any man you must realize that there was no victory for any
nation embroiled in that frightful war."
"
When did it end?" I asked him.
Again he shook his head. "It has not ended yet. There has never been a formal
peace declared in Europe. After a while there were none left to make peace, and
the rude tribes which sprang from the survivors continued to fight among
themselves because they knew no better condition of society. War razed the
works of man--war and pestilence razed man. God give that there shall never be
such another war!"
You all know how Porfirio Johnson returned to Pan-America with John Alvarez in
chains; how Alvarez's trial raised a popular demonstration that the government
could not ignore. His eloquent appeal--not for himself, but for me--is historic, as
are its results. You know how a fleet was sent across the Atlantic to search for
me, how the restrictions against crossing thirty to one hundred seventy-five were
removed forever, and how the officers were brought to Peking, arriving upon the
very day that Victory and I were married at the imperial court.
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