WAR SIDELIGHTS.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 1417, 29 November 1904, Page 6

WAR SIDELIGHTS.

—The Miracle of Japan.— Since ISII7 the Japanese have never lueeu idle. They luivo travelled (savs a writer ~i 'Blackwood') all the world over, those men win, forty vcars ago might not leave their country on pain of death, and (hey have joarnod all the lessons the world has to teach them. ()[ course, it is impossible not to forget the surrender of U n exclusive, race to the modern passion of uniformity ; yet the skill wbero.vith the Japanese have made the difficult urt- of war and diplomacy their own will always appear miraculous. -May Ihi their great gift is imitation; lint lmitutiou cea>es (<, be a slavery when the copy improves the original, and it cannot be denied that the. Japanese have jterfornied feats (luring the war which are beyond tlio much of all suve the bravest and besl-traiw-d troops. To what, (hen, are due their energy and success? Partly, no doubt, to their obedience to the feudal system, which has still the same nolile influence „p„„ .Japan 0R it had upon medieval Kurope. '.'artl.v. also. to their youth, for Japan, old as she is in civilisation, is voung in policy. She has not worn herself out by centuries of intrigue and dispute. She has not acquired a reckl<sg c.wiicism in the twisted puths of diplomacy. At heart she is still young, with a youth which is put ( <( (j lo test for the fust time, and she is ull the stronger because for many him dieds of years nlie has rested within her borders untried and untem]ited. And now she is lighting for her existence, unaided, against a .uttion whose omnipotence has long been a Kuropcuu superstition. No longer do her Samurai come forth clad in cliiinmail. with bows and arrows in their hands. She has adopted and improved all the products of Western experience- ; she Ims assumed, with iron battleships and .'quick-firing gun«, an | understanding of modem tactics i.iid ' a skill to move .great masses of men. I Hut to her knowledge of warfare she adds ail indomitable courage, which ,is a herieage from the past. Her , soldiers fear nothing, not oven death, ; and till is possible to those who eg--1 teem their life as lightly as a straw. j - The Divine Czar.— "Obedience, absolute and unquotfI turning, is what the State'must havej from the people." said M. Pobiedonosl/eir recently to a ncwly-instulleJ ! Russian Hisliop. "You are but the I instrument, in Christ, of the nil-potent j will of the Little Father by Dicine right," he added significantly. After j this little surprise need surely be felt js» anyone acquainted with Russian j politico-religious methods, oven ut I the recent publication and distribution broadcast of hundreds of thousands of (ieneral liog-dniiovitch's latest ' representation of the Czar | and Czaritsa bending, in the atti- ' tude traditionally aseribi-d to the I Virgin and St. Joseph, over the <radile containing the infant Czarevitch, I whilst on angel stands over lhtm I with wings outstretched and hands j uplifted, and a row of Russia's obedient moujil.s kneel with heads bowed I hands clasped in humble adornj tioit. This production is inlcrlcd specially for distribution among the soldiers and sailors of the Czar in the garrison and naval centres.— •Times.'

•lnpniic-i> Secrecy. - Tlii» Japanese authorities justify their attitude towards war liy con-tcndin-.r that mi halfway measures are possible. If sierccy is to be preserved it must lie wholly preserved, fur from tlin moment when any discretion is allowed clTcctivc control disappears. It has lleell quite curious to wlltlc.-'-< tin- interpretations put upon lllis reticence liy some onlookers. They have found apparently insuperable difliciilty ill cor.eeiviiip; that silence can mean am-lliinir lint, coneenliiient of disaster. To lliis day some European onlookers persist in thinking that <!enernl Nod/u went down with the Hitachi Main. though his preseniii at u farewell Imni|iict to Marquis Oyama given subscipnnily to llie sinking of the transport is proved liy a group jili.itoirrupli ; others confidently uflinn that the sii-ge train for the attack of Port Arthur was lost on the name occasion, tlioilirli Ihe authorities emnhaticallv ilcnv anything of the kind ; yH others claim' that the battleships Vasliimn and Shikishimn have •iliarnd the fat" of the TTatsuse, and that the Fuji also has Heeii struck liy a mine jind placed hors de combat, which would leave Japan only two baltleships for thfl fighting line, .hough, when Ilia Russians mnhe their abortive, sin-lie from Port Arthur they .•.milled live ironclads thing the Rising ling: and others say ihut two-thirds of the country's armored cruiser* arc in dock heavily dainairtil, ihou,di the safetv of all tlu-sft ships is well nwiur- , ed. 'llow the .lapaiiesc view mi these suspicions is hard to tell ; they ir-nk* no 'comment. But so far as -an be seen there will ultimately be Ji" ditli.idl.v whatever in deciding which of tlie two combatants lias trolled truth with greater respect tlir.iil u liPUt this war. In not «o much «s «'ie run; have the Japanese official njioli'' liii II so for convicted of wiifi! ••;•'•' ,ir exajruvration.—'l'okio correspuii'liHl' of the 'Times.'