EMBARRASSED JAPAN.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 16357, 29 September 1913, Page 6

EMBARRASSED JAPAN.

lx addition to gathering an abundance of information concerning the condition, social and political, of Japan and the Japanese, Mr T. G. ltussell, who has just returned from a visit to the Far East, appears to have done some clear thinking. As a New Zealander, he was naturally interested in the suggestion that sooner or later the Japanese were sure to turn aggressive attention to the fertile, half-peopled possessions of Britain in this part of •the world; but if he had any fears on the question before, he certainly has pone now. His general conclusion is that Japan has her hands more than full already. Her people, ho tells us, are poor and are heavily overtaxed as the result of the expensive war with Russia, which made an enormous addition to the national debt, tin her present circumstances it would be impossible for her to finance any war but one of defence, and in any case she is faced with the Russian menace in Siberia, yearly growing more and more serious. Moreover, her acquisitions have, in Mr Russell’s opinion, given her sufficient territory to occupy her attention for a century to come. The idea of a military invasion of Australia he dismisses as impossible, in view of the distance of even Queensland from the home country and the ease with which a fleet of transports could be cut off from its base. Of course there are many people who, ill informed, talk airily of the possibility of a Japanese invasion, but no serious student regards such a development as being in the least degree probable in the near future, and Mr Russell’s plain and logical statement of the position ought to go far towards an absurd popular impression. HThe danger that people whc». have studied the question have in mind, however, is not the one to which Mr Russell gives his attention. It is a patient, persistent invasion by workers, both Japanese and Chinese, not an armed invasion, that constitutes the problem to be faced by tho British colonies. The conditions in the Far East have changed so remarkably during the past half-century thatno one cares to prophesy what the changes of the next half-century may be, and from China, more than from Japan, there may he expected a steady tide of emigration. The question for these colonies is largely political, but it is reasonable to suppose that some day Australasia will be called upon to justify tlie policy of exclusion directed against Asiatics. The wise statesman look® to tho future. It is not the possibility of an armed invasion that need cause us concern, but the other problem will one day bo pressing for solution, and the obvious solution cannot be found in a day or a year. The most effective defence Australasia caft have against the Asiatic, armed or unarmed, is the possession of an adequate ■population of British parentage.