ENGLAND AND JAPAN.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 3448, 1 June 1898, Page 3

ENGLAND AND JAPAN.

“A friend of Japan,” writing in the London Daily Telegraph, says:—lf the Queen’s Ministers have in any degree grasped the situation and concluded with the Mikado the firm and sincere compact which their common interests enjoin, Russia will no longer be able to bny Japan away from her natural aide—the protection and opening-up of China in accord with England, America and Germany ; for Germany belongs to the party of civilised commercial action—not to the one-sided league betwee'n FranoS and Russia. Weihaiwei ought to be henceforth protected by Japanese and English troops and ships in combination, and when Japan asks presently for Amoy, or some port and littoral opposite Formosa, as she will do, she should have the cordial support of England, who has no ally so useful or so obvious in the Pacific as “Pai Nippon/* There seem to be people who call this an “ alliance with Pagans," and protest against Christians “making friends with the yellow races.” Their ignorances is only exceeded by their stupidity, for the Japanese are a nation entirely distinct from the Chinese, and if such narrowminded arguments had any force, they would prevent the Queen from employing Mohammedan and Hindu soldiers. Japan has already identified herself with English plans and policies. English is the second language of her towns and cities, and to England she looks for guidance and aid in the great future which. Destiny plainly promises her. Her enemies are ours; and for her, as for the British Empire, the ultimate domination of China by the Muscovite would be the beginning of the end. As matters stand, a conjunction* of the forces of the Japanese and British Mags absolutely command the fate of China and of the North Faciflo, the United States and Germany standing neutral or friendly. The largest and strongest naval array in that ocean is beyond all denial Japanese. At this mordent it is superior in fighting power to that of England or Russia, and will be yet more plainly so within 12 months, flying over 130 pennants. In the new century Japan will command 200,000 tons of ships of war, and behind this she has a land army which stands at more than half a million, and can be largely augmented. Her commercial marine has grown enormously, so that she has unlimited transport advantages, and these are for her not hard to keep up like the foreign contingents, but all “home forces,” perpetually gathered at and about her sea-gates. It is therefore with the aid of this enlightened and highspirited country, amply provided, resolute in policy, and having interests identical with our own, that England should prepare to confront the very difficult future in the Pacific seas.

We must, however, give as well as take. Japan has face! successfully prodigious dangers, and can partly afford to put a price upon her friendship. She will want Korea’s independence secured and guaranteed, for Korea is too near to Japau to be Cosaaoked. She will want a commercial footing, like the other Great Powers, upon the mainland of China, where her trade is second only to our own. She will want from England, not merely a cold and grudging accord, but one worthy of the age and of the Empire which has realised that, at last, the East and the West are coming into unison and common progress, and that the future safety and progress of humanity will depend, as much as on anything, upon the firm, loyal and lasting alliance of the England of the Bast with the England of the West.