THE JAPANESE SCARE

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8738, 21 May 1914, Page 8

THE JAPANESE SCARE

To the Editor “N.Z. Times.”

Sir, —It is a pity when one of our English generals comes to the' Antipodes ho cannot, to use a vulgarism, •‘open his mouth without putting his foot in it.” General lan Hamilton haa, mferentially, perhaps, but inferentially all the same, made an unfortunate allusion to Japan—our ally—and a veiled throat at the Eastern races, including as a natural consequence, His Majesty’s Indian subjects. Great Britain will always recollect with gratitude the moral support she received from the Japanese in the dark days of the opening years of the present century, when in Europe the dogs of war were straining at the leash and the shadow of the Russian colossus hung forbodingly on the borders of Afghanistan. No one knows better than the general what wo owed to the Japanese in those days. Now, because he is visiting countries which are managed largely in the interests' of manual labourers, he must have a tilt at the Oriental races. Xd wonder the Tokio newspapers are describing General Hamilton as “a disturber of the peace.” Xo wonder they are beginning to question our bona fides, and to put unpleasant and unpalatable truths before the coloured people of the East.. AVhy seek to inflame against the Orient a passion for the military spirit under present cir cumstancesf It is so easy to do it here. There is surely a polite way of communicating our intentions' to Japan. In 1915 the Anglo-Japancse Alliance comes-to an end hy the effluxion of time- Perhaps Japan, in view of the studied insults offered hy the untravellcd peoples and by the Governments of Australasia to the yellow races, and also in view of recent happenings, will prefer to proceed upon

her own course, and, untrammelled by totangling alliances, reassert, if necessary, once again by force of arms, her incontestable prerogative to a seat in the councils of the nations and her undeniable right to claim equality with the pampered races of the West. The Japanese invasion, if it come, will assuredly not take the form of a military invasion; it will bo an entirely pacific one; it will bo an economic invasion, against which all tho soldiers Australasia may raise, all the battleships she may build and all the legislation her tribunals may enact will prove hopelessly unavailing. When discussing world politics even in an insignificant corner of the globe, public, men should be discreet; they should recollect that there is such a thing at the cable service, that His Majesty’s Government have freaty obligations to fulfil, and that the King of England is also Emperor of India.—l am, etc., J. E. HIRST. Wellington, May 20th.