SERIOUS CONFLICT.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 330, 17 October 1908, Page 5

SERIOUS CONFLICT.

CHINA AND JAPAN. TROOPS FIGHT ON KOREAN BORDER. SATISFACTION DEMANDED. (hi telegraph—rniss association—coptbiobt.) (Rec. Octobor 16, 11.15 p.m.) Sooul, October 16. A conflict, lasting several hours, has occurred between Chinese and Japanese troops at Kantao, on the border of China and Northern Korea. It is feared that tho conflict will lead to serious complication. The Japaneso allege that the Chinese were the aggressors. Immediate satisfaction has been demanded at Peking by Japan. AN OLD DISPUTE. CHINA'S PEAK OF JAPAN'S ARMS. Tho relations between Japan and China have been more or less strained for some time, the most conspicuous of several "incidents" being China's seiture of tho Japanese steamer Tatsu Maru for smuggling arms, which led to a peremptory Japanese demand for immediate satisfaction, whereupon the Peking Government promptly apologised. But tho central Government s weakness raised a storm in the provinces, especially in Canton, leading to the antiJapan boycott, which it is admitted greatly damaged Japanese trade and further embittered the already strained relations. Our Eastern correspondent has pointed out that the Chinese resent tho indignities which are forced on China because of the weakness of her navy; at the same time, they really fear Japan, believing that she would like to pick a quarrel wi t n wealthy China so-as to exact an indemnity that would ease Japan's financial burdens. On the other hand, for some time the Mikado and his Ministers have been reiterating the ory of "peaceful development." The place on the Korean frontier whore the conflict has oceurr.ed is cabled as Kantao, but is probably the frontier district o£ Chentao. The dispute as between China and Korea (whoso proxy Japan has now become) is centuries old. Prior to the eighteenth century Chentan was recognised by China and Korea as neutral ground. In, 1874 a famine in north-western Korea drove many Koreans into the Chentao territory, and it was not till 1882 that Cliina protested against this Korean occupation. Subsequent negotiations for delimitation failed, and Korean inhabitants of Chentao began, it is alleged, to suffer oppression at the hands of their Chinese fellow-residents. Tho Koreans sent deputations to Sooul in 1906, by which time Japan had come on the scene to conduct Korea's business; and the Japaneso KesidentGeneral dispatched Colonel Saito to the territory with 90 gendarmes. It is said that, at the same time, Japan informed China that the primary object of the step was to protect Korean life and property, not to assert a territorial title. Writes the Tokio correspondent of "The Times":—"Ultimately the question is between China and Korea, Japan being interested only as tho latter's proxy; and it may be confidently assorted of the Tokio .statesmon that they desire. nothing more than an amicable settlement. The number of Korean settlers in Chentao is 140,000 approximately." The correspondent adds that the Koreans greatly outnumber the Chinese. In May, China sent 5000 troops to the Korean frontier, alleging as a reason for this step that Japan was taxing the village of Tienpao-Shan, which China olaims as her territory. "The Times's" correspondent had previously referred to the threatened dispatch of a Chinese army as a "dangerous measure," and had stated that tho' Tokio Government , had endeavoured to dissuade China from taking such a step. ■ The correspondent asserts that provocative measures have been used by the Chinese, such as lawless violence on the part of the soldiery towards Koreans; tho closing of a mine at Tienpao-Shan, in which Japanese and Korean subjects were working in co-operation; and then a raid upon a Korean school with forcible shaving of all the pupils' heads in accordance with Chineso fashion. "