IN FAIR JAPAN

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2741, 8 April 1916, Page 6

IN FAIR JAPAN

HEW muSDBB'S IBIPRESSIONS

THE MIKADO'S CORONATION

GREAT WAR BUSINESS BOOM

"I was reminded on more than one occasion of: Kipling's lines, which terminate in the epitaph— ' Here lies a fool Who tried to hustle the East.' It is no good. "Tito Aryan smiles and the Christian riles,' but you can never got them to hustle." The ispeaker was Mr. C. A. Briggs, manager of E. W. Mills and Co., who has oeen holidaymaking in the East; sino September last, four months of whioh time was spent in Japan.. "Does that apply to the Japanese?" was asked. "Yes —the Japanese are iujt.the same as the rest. They say that 'punctuality is the»soul of business.' If that is so the Japanese has 110 business soul, yet he is doing: very well in competition with the world. He will cheerfully put off till to-morrow what h© could do today, and it is difficult to make him keep appointments. Anyhow, all tho clocks < in Tokio differ, bo that he can always ' say that he had gone by another clock. That characteristic, and the fact that tiny country is over-run until orders, make the Japanese of the present time a little difficult to do business with." "I'm an Irishman!" Mr. Briggs left here on August 2G last, and . travelled northward by way of Northern Australia, Batavia; ana Singaporo. At' Singapore ho was shown the scene of the tragic mutiny of over a year ago, when a Sepoy regiment, bribed with German gold, ran amok and killed many Europeans before justice overtook them. He was taken out and shown the scrub-flanked road by an officer—Lieut.' Kennedy—who told him that the Sepoys-took cover on each side of the road, under instructions to shoot all English people that' passed, and, as is known, several'passing in motor-cars were Bhot down. It is related that when a car came along the Sepoys held it up, and asked, "Are you English?" Scenting danger, one traveller, replied, "No, I'm an , Irishman!" And the Sepoys let him pass. They had never [heard of an Irishman, arid their instructions \\<ere only to 6hoot English. From Singapore Sir. Briggs travelled to Hong Kong and Shanghai, and then crossed over to Japan, where his caravan rested for four delightful months. The Mikado's Crowning. Mr,. Briggs was fortunate enough, to be in Kiota, the ancient capital of ■ Japan, at the time of the coronation of the young Mikado. "Most of the foreigners had received their passes long before from the_ British Ambassador in Tokio, but having none, I applied to the Japanese Governor of Kiota, and was accommodated withva pass to view the official entry of the Mikado into; the Imperial Palace ■ grounds, where j there was ■ a reservation for Europeans, i There were somo two-million visitors to Kiota to .witness .the ceremonies, ,so you can imagine the ■ crowd, aiid : the gorgeous procession which heralded tlio approach of tho .Mikado beggars description. All sections of the community ■were represented in-somo way recog- . nisable; to the Japanese—big bearded Ainus of the extreme north, men from tho inland sea, soldiers, priests—the nation in procession. I had a good view of-the Mikado, who under his gorgeous canopy appeared to bo a ■ nice-looking young fellow. -A wonderful feature' of tho tu.».i-out was that it was all conducted in absolute quietness; Everyone was instructed that no demonstration was to be made—all we were to do'was' to bow the head as the Mikado passed, which we all did most religiously. Three Weeks of Joy. "Of course that was only the start. Ceremonies and processions, and feastings were kept up for three weeks. Sometimes I would walk the streets for half a day without seeing another Euro, pean, and the crowds were so thick at times that the only way I could get' along was to join in the procession; and shout 'Banzai!' with the rest of them. At night-time the streets were . an astonishingly-, beautiful sight. Every shopkeeper and householder was com-' peljed to hang before his place a big white Japanese paper lantern, with tho national Rising Sun device on it, and for miles ono could see these lines of lantorns trailing away into the distance. Japanese Religion. "First lessons in Shintoisml" said. Mr. Briggs, producing a photograph of a Japanese mother, holding her child up. to enable it to throw its little fist, ful of rice into the receptacle in a, wayside shrine. /"Shintoisin," said Mr. Briggs, "is a difficult' thing to define. It is, hardly a religion, for it is not opposed in any way to Buddhism—that is to say, a person can be a Shintoist and a Buddhist' without tho slightest inconvenience, There are no Shinto temples—only these shrines. The ceremonial religion of Japan is Buddhism, but Shintoism— the worship of the Mikado and one's ancestors is an elemental force in the nation which makes its people' one cohesive whole—which means an intense patriotism. Here is a photo of a woman and her child.; Having visited tho shrino they go over to a pole and ring a bell suspended at the top, clap tho hands three times, and pray silently for a few moments, The Buddhist temples are beautiful in the purest artistio sense. Their altars are not garish with colours and jewels 1 like those of the Indian temples, hut are in their decorations reftned and chaste to a degree. The People. "During the whole time I was in Japan I never saw an altercation in the street. I never saw a drunken Japanese. I was in a hotel, in Kobe, on ono occasion when a couple of Englishmen came in who had plainly 'had a skinful,', and they began to get playful and knock things about a hit. There were Japanese girl attendants, and when the rowdies had gone, first one girl came over to my.table and said: 'I am sorry for vou,' and went away, and tho other girl came over and said the same thing. I felt really sorry for-my-self. ' girls Vere apologising for such a row occurring in their bar, hut I felt sorry to think that the only drunken men I had seen in all .Japan were my own countrymen. The better class peonle do not roam about the streets, they are home-lovers and take a great interest in malcino; the home beautiful. The women of Japan are on a higher plane than the men, intellectually. The War Boom. "Of course, Japan is scoring enormously by the war. Orders aro pouring in, not' only from tho Allies, hut America is getting immense quantities of goods there. The... official-political scction of the community favours tho Allies, 1 the common people, are indifferent, and ono would .think they did not know that a great war is in progress. There is. also a pro-German party, which expresses its views in a very outspoken way in its own paper. I don't flunk those people have any national feeling in tho matter—they merely think that Japan has 'backed the' wrong horse.' In the meantime, Japan is immensely prosperous. Its exports exceeded its imports, by an enormous amount last year, and only twice before in the history of the country has that been the case. Some nf- . ..Bio firms in Osaka- have orders Ihaj,

will keep them going for another foui years to come. The trouble is now to give aelivcry. When I reached Japan in October the freight to London was 555. per ton; in December it was Cos.; ill January, 71s. 6d.; in February, 855.; and now it is 100s. I personally saw 300 4-inch guus for Russia being taken down the canal at the_ back of the hotel I' was staying at in Osaka. A party of Russian officers hau then been staying ten months in the hotel concerned with' nothing else but munitions of war.

"A small steamer, which had been chartered at- 300 yen a m'onth, was rechartercd at 3000 yen a month while

I was tTiere, and the Japanese are' buying up anything that will hold cargo. liven if it will only malte a couple- of voyages, it will pay for itself as freights are. The Stock Exchange was booming. ft became su excited that the Government closed the Tokio Exchange for three days, but when it reopened up went tlie shares in industrial and shipping ooncerns skyhigh and there were reports of many big fortunes being made. I heard of one Japanese who mado £250,000 and another . £50,000 within a very short space of time. Oh, Japan is doing all right in this war!"