The Press. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1904. JAPANESE SELF-POSSESSION.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 11790, 13 January 1904, Page 6

The Press. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1904. JAPANESE SELF-POSSESSION.

One of the meet striking features of the crisis in the Far East is the remarkable coolness and determination, shown by the Japanese people. They are sometimes called the "French of the Pacific," and there is \ popular notion that they are an impressionable, not to cay hysterical, people. That this is an altogether mistaken idea of their character lias been amply ehown in the present exists, es Trail as in the Chino-Japanese war.. In the latter case they made their preparations in a very businesslike and thorough-going fa;shion, and carried through the war in a spirit of cool and stern determination. An even greater stress was placed upon their self-restraint -when the terms of peace came to be arranged, and they found themselves jockeyed to a large extent out of the fruits of their victory by pressure from Germany and Russia. They succumbed to that pressure, finding it impossible to withstand it, but without making a great, outcry they simply set to work to prepare for the still greater struggle for their national existence, which they saw would have to be faced in the future. Even at the present time, while there is a strong feeling among the Japanese people that they most withstand Russia, at all hazards, or "be for ever "fallen," the nation, as the able correspondent of "The Times" at Tokio tells us, remains curiously calm. They feel, to use his words, "that the clutch of "Russia's lengthening fingers can never "be loosed from Southern Asia "except by blows of the sword, and " that each day of grace granted to her "adds to her strength, so that presently, "from » negotiator she may b* trans*

" formed into a dictator." Yet there is no outward display o! excitement, no manifestation of Chauvinism. There are a dozen important papers in Tokio alone, each well served with correspondent* in Pekin, Seoul, and other centres of information, so thai their readers are welladvised as to what is going on. Yet only one of those papers takes up a distinctly Chauvinktio attitude. The others, while clear on the subject of resisting injustice and aggression on the part of Russia, yet urge the duty of leaving no stono unturned to seek a peaceful solution of the problem if it be possible. "It is probably safe to " cay," remarks the writer from whom we have quoted, "that never yet did any " nation, brought face to face with a crisis " of overwhelming gravity, maintain a de. "meanour of greater sobriety and self"control than the Japanese have shown "on this occasion." It is in this spirit that a great national emergency should be met. It is no wonder that the English journals published in Japan—which, strange to say, were pro-Chinese in the Cliino-Japanese war—are united in their admiration of ;he spirit shown by the Japanese, while they are unanimous in expressing the belief that Japan has right on her side in the dispute with Russia. A nation which can show such self-control at a moment of supreme peril must command respect. If it is in the power of diplomacy to effect a peaceful settlement such a spirit will go a long way to ensure peace. Oμ the other hand, if it cornea to fighting, it is no bad augury for success in war.