A COOL JAPANESE APPROPRIATION.
In Tokio, before leaving for Manchu- ' ria. General Fukushima asked me to bring my entire outfit to the office of the General Staff. I spread it out on Iho floor, and, with unerring accuracy, h© selected from it the three articles of greatest value. They were the Gold Medal cot, the Elliott chair, and Proston's water bottle. He asked if he could borrow theso, and, understanding that he , wanted to copy them for his own use, and supposing that if he used • them he would, of course, malce somo restitution to the officers who had invented them, I foolishly loaned them to him. Later, ho issued them in numbers to tho General Staff. As I felt, in a manner, res-non-sib.e, I wrote to the Secretary of War, saying I was sure the Japanese army did not wieh to benefit by these inventions without making some acknowledgment or roturn to tho inventors. But the Japanese War Oflico could not see tho point I tried to make, and the Genernl Staff wrote a letter in reply asking why 1 had not directed my communication lo General Fukushima, ns it was not the Secretary of War, but ho, who had taken mo articles. The. fiiet tli.it they were being issued without any roturn Imingmnde did not interest them. They passed cheerfully over thu fnct that tlte articles had been stolen, and were indignant, not because I had accused a Japanese general of pilfering, but because. I had accused the wrong general. The lettPr was so indolent thnt I went to the Genera. Staff ] office and explained that tho officer who i wrote it must withdraw it and apologise for it. Both of which things he did. In case tiis gentlemen whose inventions were "borrowed" might, if they wished, take further step* in the matter, I sent the documents in tho case, with the excep- ! fcion of the letter which was withdrawn, to the chief ol tho General Staff in the United States and ki England.— From "Kits and Outfits," by Kich.ird Harding j Davis, in Scribnor's Nlag.izine.
A COOL JAPANESE APPROPRIATION.
Evening Post, Volume LXIX, Issue 118, 20 May 1905, Page 14
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