The Dominion. TUESDAY, MAY 19, 1908. THE TROUBLES OF JAPAN.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 201, 19 May 1908, Page 6

The Dominion. TUESDAY, MAY 19, 1908. THE TROUBLES OF JAPAN.

v It wis reported from Sydney yesterday . that passengerS by., a steamer arriving from China declare that Japan is in it' deplorable condition, owing .to the Chinese boycott. The financial position, it was saidy is serious: " Banks are without gold, and the Chinese refuse to accept paper money," Reports like these, coming 1 from Chinese sources,' must be heavily discounted; but when due allowance has beeri. niade .for. the wish that is ktkrT.ta the thought, therfi rerilaihs'. at substantial foundation of trlith. 'For many months, past the finahbeS of Japan have been a subject for uiieasj' discussion in all the bailking centres of the world, and it is established that financially Japan is not m that Sound and, healthy dondition its friends woiild liko it to be. The recent proposals to end the policy of the nationalisation of the railways seem to have had their origin in the Government's realisation of the excessive burden involved in the nationalisation scheme adopted two years ago. That scheme irtVolfed the immediate expendithre of £50)000,000 on tho seventeen lines Which it was proposed td add to the alfeady existing system of State lifies, with fifiorhious obligations waiting in the future; It,was stated during March that the pfospects of any foreign Japanese 10M Would not he good, and that the Government was {deling;the severe strain df'the railways burden;■ Money was so scifce aS to 'malce it ; even, questionable whether a ddihfefetic loan coiild be floated. The Iban-made pr'ospSi'ity was at 'anVend.

;In the Tokid fleWspajier, foyo Keizai, Wgre recently given figures which showed that the Japanese are mofe heavily taxed than any. other: people in the wbricL The estimated expenditure for the current ye&r Was ; 616j000,0d6 yen' (£61,600,006), or dh , average of 12,65 y6n psr hfiad. It wag e'atiixiatod that this would place on the head of every family a burden equal to one-fifth of his average uicoiri& a . It 4156 pdiiited out that in Great Britain, with tea timds the trade 6f japati j the total taxation was only 150 per coflt. mor^;,iti Praties, whefe the tr&dd is MVefii- tiifles gJeatef, ja&iiifla is 6ent, indre. v Writing iii February last, the Tokio correspondent of the New York Post declared that " a kigh state' of excitement , prevailed throughout the country as the result of a proposal to ihclrease tajcation: " The merchants' guilds, industrial associations; and comhiercial ebbs of the Silipire,, led by the Tokio Chamber of Com' merce, have been holding meetings to pass resohitifiiW of protest figainst tlii Govertimetit's ; inteiition; but so faf . tti6 authorities have-ignored all opposition." The nation is staggeriflg Under the colOsSal burden of armaments. Ono grave rdßult df the shortage of money is thb blow whifih has beeii slistjtindd by JipaneSfl merchant shipping. Two largo steamship projects, the Nipiioh Kiaeh Kaisha, and the SheiishU Domeikai, which ftould have involved a subscription 6f 60,000)000 yon in capital, have fallen through. Large riuiribdrs of Corporations,' Involviiig millions of capital, have gone into liquidation since the war. Maiiy of the largiist Japahesc shipping lines. depend fd? their profit, and even, fdr their existence, on Government assistance. Already the Government pays 10,000,000 yen in ship subsidies, add ifl the pfUserit state of the Government's finances this hadvy subsidieabiotl df • the merchant marine cannot continue indefinitely.

One writer declares roundly that the figures make impossible the much-prophe-sied Japanese control of Pacific shipping.

People, were inclined, during and after the Russo-Japanese war, to hail Japan as the discoverer of the royal road to national greatness. Sober men, looking' to the teachings of history, doubted ivhethfer there! was any place in national development for the imprdvisatore. "You cafinot improvise a grdat nation," they said.- '! If it does riot take 'centuries, yet it takes, at liny rate, generations,-to liiy the foundations of national chardeter and Solid Virtue iipoii which alone a nation cart stftnd seciti'e." The New Ifork Post Has re-disc'overed this truth, arid it has found k>mc strafige barbari-' ties in the Japanese polity-. Its conclusion is that " the nobility, ambition, selfsacrifice and thoroughness which have all bSeii hithertb (concentrated toward producing a giant in arms must be drawn into more lasting but less ostentatious channels. THe code of the Samurai, so far as it may be translated, ' Whatever you doi do with all your might,' must be applied. to the insignificant things of life which, when all is added up, mako a total far more potent than even Port Arthur or Mukden." Japan has accoriiplished much) but it is only now learning the oldest of axioms* that one must creep before one tries to run; or, as the Post, has it, sllS iSai last ''faciiig'realities."