A BLACK PERIL EQUALLY SUBDUING

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12379, 19 December 1905, Page 4

A BLACK PERIL EQUALLY SUBDUING

in ft bloodless way. Aβ I thought and said at the time when his speculations came into print, he had a surprisingly

small belief that war would determine or even haetea the chanjre* he looked for. The future which, he fortsaw Had, no such imminent, no such violent introduction as the Russo-Japanese oonflict. Considering what that future is, it nover seemed likely to oome about without rebellion and resietanoe half the world over; yet Pearson traced out a much smoothes- course of events— smoother, but irresistible as a nMBg tide. Climate, commerce, and the lessons of civilisation were to do the business, operating throughout the "yellow boxlo" and tho alike. Although when lookingMo the Chinese ho could fancy them repeating at eomo time or other the excursionary ravage of the Turks, he thought the industrial competition of China much more to be /eared. The immense resources of tho country; the colonising enterprise of tho people; their astonishing capacity # for toil; their aptitude for organisation.; and the thrift which, with all these other qualities, enables them _to starve out every race of white* with whom they como into competition—this was for him tho more real and certain Yellow Peril; and though.ho gave little consideration to the Japanese, they and all the other yellow races were in hie o&l----culation. And so as to the blacks and browns. Wherever wo colonise or market they are learning and they are ewarming, and will gradually thrust back the European peoples" by an expansion of native e&ergy and self-asser-tion where climate and population favour pressure. Thrown back within narrower limits, we Europeans shall look about us "to see the world girdled with a continuous zone of the black and yellow races," monopolising the trade of their own regions, and STARVING EUROBjEAN INDUSTRY. This being Charles Pearson's forecast, it will bo seen that, by allowance of the coolest opinion of tlio day, there is nothing of the "bogey" in it. If, like many other men, he believed that some very strenuous old-world fighting qualities slumbered in the Yellow races, he has been justified; fox in tho no-timo of ten years after he wrote there came between East and West one of the most bloody and resounding wars that ever were waged, and the East won. That, however, may bo regarded as a fortuitous event, perhaps. Possibly, as so many of us think, it will never occur again. Leaving this branch of the subject, therefore, and looking to the other, we see that the real, the evolutionary, the commercial and industrial Yellow Peril, has made a Btriking advance with in the same brief period. Of course it does not compare at all with tho naval and military development of affairs, but it is a sufficient advance to surpass the expectation of twelve years einoe, whether Pearson's or another's. No one supposes that Europe has suffered in the least, so far from the industrial and commercial competition of Japan arid China; unless for a few great firms like Croaee and Blackwell and Bryant and May, who find their goods super- I seded by ' I THE MOST PERFECT FRAUDS under cover of trade-labels beautifully imitated. With euch exceptions probably not more in number than three or four dozen—the industrial competition of the Far East has been more stimulating than repressive up to the tHfcsent time, no doubt. But although there has been some argument to the contrary of late, Trade is a jade that will still follow after the conqueror's drum. And just as Gorman commerce took enormous strides immediately upon th« conclusion of a glorious war, so (tut with plainer reason) all expectation looks to an immense enhancement of the industrial rivalry of Japan. And indeed it is something to be, beyond challenge, the first maritime Power in these prolific seas; and something more to have at disposal not only the ports and harbours of Korea, but its little-worked resources aboveground and underground, and even the population itself. So many factories have already been set up in Japan.—cotton mills, iron works, and the the look of the country in many places ie said to be i quite changed. ..Now the natural resources of Korea are to be opened up al/soj not, I believe, to foreign concessionadres, but to Japanese enterprise strictly defined, though open as day to the assistance of foreign capital. And who would hesitate to place hie money with a people so astonishingly apt in all they undertake as the Japanese? . , Apparently, therefore, now it is that '(the real Yellow Peril" is about to come on in earnest; the only question for us being whether we have anything to say in a matter which certainly concerns us.. Charles Pearson evidently took a fatalist view of it. Hβ was quite clear that it could only work out in one way by the operation of forces practically uncontrollable; and in the long run he may turn out to be right. Meanwhile, however—and no one" will more readily admit this than our gallant allies themselves—wo must .needs do our beet to keep our markets afiAinst all rivalry. We are quite agreed on that point; and yet, I wonder, to what extent? In all the discussions of the subject which I have yet seen, only one moans of defence 'ie mentioned: extraordinary oaro and diligence in our workshops and counting-houses. Sound advice it is, of course, but OF WHAT AVAIL against the far cheaper work and the much more adopt management of the Japanese and Chinaman "on the epot"P In reply comes the counter question: "What other means is there, then ?" None that can bo thought very effectual. But lam euro of this, that those admirable Japanese, piercingly sensible, pattern patriots—above all, Buehidotaught—would think it madness and a crime to supply a rival nation with the means of extending its rivalry.' -Yes: I mean that that will be done if and when the expected millions are sent out of this country to establish competing mills, mines, factories, and freight-ehil» where we know they must be ruinous to British industry.« It ie not even as if the works so established could to British property: as I understand the matter, that is not at all the Japanese idea. Or if there were no other means of investing British capital, something might be eaid for British in- 1 dividuals who earned their four per | cent, by cutting down trade and wages in England: ac it is, however, that something cannot be eaid.