JAPAN AND THE WORLD.

Otago Witness, Issue 2686, 6 September 1905, Page 66

JAPAN AND THE WORLD.

(By " Ex- Attache," in the New Orleans Times-Democrat/) To all thoughtful people the news of the crushing defeat administered by Admiral Togo upon Rozhdestvensky will bring the reflection that from now on it will become necessary to mend our manners towards the Japanese, and, in fact, to the Asiatics in general. Particularly will this appeal to those who, like myself, have spent a portion of their life in the Orient. Until the beginning of the present war between Russia and Japan we have been accustomed to look upon the " little brown men " who give their allegiance to the Mikado as an inferior race — as a people whose assimilation in 50 years of the fruits of our long centuries of civilisation suggested Simian imitation rather than sober study, enlightenment, and reason. Even those Americans and Europeans who entertained the most kindly and amicable feelings towards the Japanese have, at anyrate, until quite recently, imparted to their manifestations of friendship such an amount of condescension as to excite indignation and resentment rather than goodwill on the part of those to whom it was addressed. Asiatics possess powers of self-control that, from an Occidental point of view, are absolutely phenomenal, and which have contributed in no small degree to the sweeping victories oi the Japanese over the Russiaiis both on land and sea. Developed as' is this characteristic, I have sometimes wondered whether it was not being strained beyond endurance, when I watched some highbred highly-cultured Japanese gentlemen, erudite in most of the Western branches of science, being patronised and metaphorically patted .on the back much as one would) a clever child by foolish, well-meaning people who did not possess even a tithe of his knowledge about their own country, their own politics, and their own civilisation.

WESTERN CONTEMPT. The contempt which, no matter whether kindly or unfriendly, has for the last 50 years influenced all the political, commercial, or merely social dealings of the white races with Japan, has suddenly given way to a profound respect. The latter has been growing ever since the beginning of the war with Russia, and, admitting all the lack of discipline, of leadership, of organisation, and of preparation that have contributed towards the Muscovite disasters, there are many military experts, both here and in Europe, who have been asking themselves as to whether the United States or Great Britain, Germany or France would have been able to wrest victory from the Japanese in a conflict, in which the scene of operations had been confined to the Far Orient. It took England several years, a colossal amount of treasure, and an army of some 300,000 men to subdue a small force of about 30,000 Boer farmers, who, while they knew how to shoot straight, had no notion of military discipline or science. Moreover, her line of conimunicatioins by sea was uninterrupted. Had the English found themselves confronted by a force of highly-trained, splendidly equipped and organised Japanese troops, equal in number to their own, and led _by veteran and experience'! generals, it is probable that the ultimate result of the Y(sv Tfould b,a,jg speli defeat

1 to the English, just as it would to the Germans, the French, or even the Americans, fighting under similar conditions. For it is agreed by the foreign officers who have witnessed in person the operations of the Japanese in the field during the present war that, in its perfection of organisation, of armament, of discipline, ! in the resourcefulness, endurance, and ex- ! traordinary indifference of the soklier to injury or death, the Japanese army as a fighting machine is' superior at the present moment. --to every other in the world | —even that of Germany. The gradual ; realisation of this condition of affairs has now been brought home to us with overwhelming force by Togo's destruction of Russia's navy, and Japan's victory "means not only hex* establishment as the pra dominant Power of the Eastern' PaciGc. but also the triumph of her ideals, religious and political, as well as her emancipation from that special foreign tutelage and patronage to which she has submitted until now, from motives of policy, with admiraby dissimulated patience. Just what the effect of Japan's acquisition of a leading role in the enn&srt pf nations will have upon the dissemination, of Ci-risiianity within he* borders, it is difficult to say. It is quite possible that it may arrest its spread, not only in Dai Nippon, but also in China. For the Japanese will henceforth be able to argue with justice that their civilisation as displayed during the present war has, even according to Western ethics, shown itself to ba of a far higher, more modern and enhgLlened order than that of her foes, and that Christianity as exemplified by Russia " bien entendu,"' contributes less towards the attainment of lofty ideals and Western progress than their own aiuaientj national creeds. NEW AXD DISQT7IETIXG CONDITIONS. Although the people at large, both here and in Great Britain, rejoice in the victories of Ja.pa.n, it may be questioned whether the leading statesmen of the two great English-speaking Empires would have wishied them io be of so overwhelming a. ehaiacter, since they create entirely new and disquieting conditions in the Orient. While they hoped for the ultimate success of Japanese arms, they rather anticipated that the war would have the effect of exhausting both belligerents for a long time to come, depriving them of the power of pursuing that aggressive policy to which the one as well as the other have besn committed. True, Russia has been crushed. But Japan, far from being exhausted, emerges from the struggle stronger, and more agressive than, ever, and small wonder that those/ directing fhe destinies of this nation look worried, and that the newspapers with one accoixl preach moderation to Japan. Whether the latter will be disposed in this hour of her triumph to defer to these editorial recommendations, is an open question. For against the proclamation of Count Okuma, the veteran Japanese statesmen and most authoritative and trusted adviser of the Mikado, to the effect that his Government, would insist upon the possession of Korea, of the Liaotung Peninsula, of Sa,ghalien, and of iho control of Manchuria, and upon the destruction of Vladivostock, the withdrawal of the Riissians to the Amur, and the payment of a colossal wax* indemnity, we have nothing but the personal pledges of those distinguished bxit officially irresponsible Japanese private citizens," Baaon Kaneko here in America and Baron Suyematsu in England, that the integrity of the Chinese Empire will be maintained in all its entirety, and that their country will be content after the war to continue to follow meekly in the wake of the United States and Great Britain. JAVAX INT A NEW ROLTC. That the high-spirited Japanese in their new role as a, great power — as a power which realises tha.t it has the colonial possessions of Germany, France, Holland, and of even Great Britain and of America, in the Far Orient at its mercy — will be willing as heretofore to order their customs dues according to tine dictates of Western nations instead of with regard to the requirements of their own revenue, il is impossible to believe, and we shall be fortunate if they do not set up a prohibitive tariff in Korea, Manchuria, and of those other portions of the Chinese Empire winch, they propose to hold. For is it probable that they wiU b& content to submitony longer to the stigma imposed upon them by the Commonwealth of Australia when it decided to apply to them the stringent and humiliating eiclusion~^aws enacted for the purpose of keeping out the yellow and coloured races. "We do not wish to quarrel with Australia,"' observed recently the leading Japanese merchant at Melbourne. " Should matters, however, come to the worst Japan will not shrink from the vindication of her prestige, even if assailed by the greatest power in the world."' Yet in Australia the labour element is supreme in politics, constitutes the overwhelming parliamentary majority that keeps the administration in power, and the labour element is bitterly hostile to Japan, and unalterably opposed to Japanese immigration. JAPANESE EXCLUSION". Here in America, in the Western States of the Union, the sentiment in favour ol the extension of the Chinese exclusion law& to the Japanese is very strong, and a number of the courts west of the Rockies, notably those in Washington State, have rejected all applications for citizenship on the pait of the Japanese on the ground that the naturalisation laws of the United States have never allowed other than " free white persons " and " persons of African nativity or descent " to be naturalised.

While of course there was no truth in the story cabled to this country that Japan had mad© a demand for an. indemnity of 100,000.000 dollars on Francs for her violations of the laws of ueuj.mUty in permitting th© ill-fated armada of Rozhdestvansky to use both her ports and her waters in its progress from Kronstadt to the Pacific, since these violations contributed to the delivering of the Russiaoa fleet into Togo's hands, yet the people oi Dai Nippon will neither forget nor for-

!to their fee. No effort is likely to i made by the Mikado's Government to ol> tain redress, at anyrate for the present. But no one need fed surprised to hear that troubles of the most serious character have broken out in the Bear future in the border provinces of Prance's possessions in Indo-China, where the natives aro ,all the time in a state of seething discontent, ripe for insurrection, whenever the slightest encouragement is given to them.' Those ■who recall the thousands of men and the millions of treasure which France has been obliged to expend in reducing the dreaded Black Flags to subjection will be able to realise the apprehension with which hep Government looks forward to a recrudescence of these risings fomented and promoted by unofficial Japanese agenta. And it is to meet this danger that Frames is now despatching large bodies of iroops to Saigon, and augmenting her naval forces in Indo-Chinese waters. " Should Franc-?, as formerly, assail China for the assistance which the Chinese population and officials in the southern portion of tha empires always give to the Black Flags, phe would find herself face to face with Japan.