BOYCOTTING NIPPON.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 200, 18 May 1908, Page 7

BOYCOTTING NIPPON.

Will IT MEAN WAR? THE JAPANESE TRADE CRIPPLED. BANKS AFFECTED. ''BY TELEGRAM —rRESS ASSOCIATION —COPrSWm.- .: Sydney, May 16.; ■ FassengorsJjy tho China stealer state that Japan is in a deplorable condition owing to tho Chinese boycott.: The financial position is seriously injured)'.' Banks aro without gold, Chinese refuse to accept paper money. Tho opinion is expressed that the ultimate result would be .-' war bc-twccn China' and Japan. 1 ■ CHINA'S REVENGE. MASS MEETING OF CHINESE WOMEN. . tatOJI OCR specia! .) J - ; Hong-Kong,'April 17. ' Tho boycott whioh Chinese patriots have declared against the goods of Japan, as a retaliation against Japan's demands in regard to tlio., steamer Tatsu Maru, grows as the-weeks roll on. It is to-day assuming proportions that may bo fraught with grave danger to tho peace of the J!'ar East. Though Chinese oflicialdom at Peking issue proclamations, and ( orders that tho boycott must not be allowed, Chinese merchants are 1 cancelling.orders : placed in Japan; torminating, their insurances with Japanese firo insurance companies; removing their accounts from Japanese Banks; and refusing : to buy,' or sell ( ' any'goods made in tho land of'tho Rising' Sun. Against tho concerted action of tho Chinese Hongs, or merchants': associations, . of, the treaty ports, Chinese oflicialdom is powerless.. 'J'ho Australian and Amorican Chineso . of. HongKong—and they aro in .themselves a wealthy and powerful body—have dccided to ship no goods in Japanese vessels. The other Hongs and Guilds'- havb made a, similar compact. An a result, Japanese boats get little or no loading for .Chineso- ports, and'one, or two have left very lightly laden. Tlio American Maru last week carried 27 Chineso passengers, while the C.P.R. Company's boat a few days later had.over 500 for America! Tho Government of - Hong-Kong are endeavouring 'to 1 suppress' the boycott .in the English Colony. The vernacular papers havobeon warned not to publish- articles 'on tho boycott,:; and all posters rolating to 'it aro .torn down, by tho,police. ' But it is being' as keenly organised and as fought out here as it is ill. Canton' (whero it arose),' .or in' Shanghai. Wealthy Chinese'aro foregoing all the marino delicacies, so dear—in two senses—to tho Chinese connoisseur; and all. correspondence is written oh 'envelopes of Chineso make, lest the letters they contain should not' be delivered, because such onvelopes are obnoxious to patriotic Chine3o postal officials'; and coolies at Cantpn liavo, refused to work at unloading' vessels loaded with. ..' Japanese coals. . Special representatives of; the American Press aro now in tlio.East '• '/writing' up"' tlio' boycott.! ' CHINESE MINES. , ,As .a .result, of I the .suspicion -of. the Japanese, coal; trade,' wealthy,' Chineso are organising a:ysyndicato 'to'..open _ up the known coal deposits. in : ■ tbo Kwang. Tung .Province', ,and have -asked. 1 the Self-Govern-mentl Association, to help them. Almost all the coal consumed in Canton.has been iiri-. ported from'-Japan, but already trials' have ibefen-' mado in Canton's own fields. . It as known, hero -that : local, merchants,jhayo 'been cabling Australia,: to seo. if coal can'.be deliveredin Canton at'a price 'that will pay.' Tho boycott may prove .'an advantage to Australia in this direction, as the American boycott, did in the; Hour',.trade. ' • i

A -Vomarkablo ; meeting—the ' first ■ kuown occasion : when 'Chineso women took part in the Speech-making at a■ public demonstration, —vas held at - Canton; , on April. 4.. . The, wtolo. of; tho female community, of the Kwang ~Tung, province wero-asked, to attend a gieat meeting to deplore' ; the disgraco that had fallen, on-:tho : nation - in., humbling, itsolf to 1 Japan;- :, Thousands.';- and' thousands of wo-, men attended—for inhabitants,.aro plentiful at Canton with its, four and a half million souls.. .. All tho female students atteuded. (iressed in mourning, and their' appearanco greatly moved the,; highly strung populace. A banner reading "National Disgraco: Memorial" was hung in front of tho hall, which could not accommodate but a' fractional part of:the crowd. Miss Cheung. Wa Pui pre-, sided.Mis3 Lau addressed- the and wept: as. slle told her licarprs that misery would fall on lier sex if the overthrown. Miss U spoke in a similar strain, and became so excited that, sho fainted during her. exhortation. The meeting: cairied. resolutions to. the effect that -every .weman should buy a ring with tho words'"National Disgrace", engraved upon , it. Thus wcul4' their country's humility over: be kept before them,; and they bo'reminded never to buy Japan's .goods. -. Subscriptions were taken up, at, which some fow thousand dollars wtro given, ito go to' a fund to commenco' manu-Ifactures-in'opposition to Japan; | ' WHAT WILL THE: RESULT BE? :AVill the boycott "last? will be tliooutcome of it if it" ; does? , The Chineso say that tliey aro determined to penaliso Japan for: what they consider her arbitrary and .'bullying, action , ovpr Maru, and 'that they can injure her'more thoroughly by a boycott than, in' any other way. Japan -can .ill "afford'sa boycott to-day. Her people arc suffering under dreadful taxation; trado i is dull in her. towns;, and the further taxa-' tion of a greater army and navy must follow her present militant War on .China over the may follow, but how can tho Chineso Government mako its people, buy: what they decline to buy? Japan's Minister at Peking ' lias warned China through the Waiwu'pu (Board of Foreign Affairs) tlia.t his Government will hold China. responsible for any- losses that Japanese merchants maj' suffer through tho boycott. Tho reply of:the Chinese was typically Chinese: "They had'no knowledge ' of' a boycott, but would instruct : all officials to discountenance anything of the kind." 'Meanwhile American officials a.nd merchants aro looking on at tho gamo with interest doubly keen.- Thoy had an experience of what a Chineso. boycott means,' and that experience was paid for at a cost of millions of dollars.