Orient and Occident.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 23, 13 December 1919, Page 5

Orient and Occident.

JOURNALIST ON JAPAN.

DUPLICITY NOT SIMPLICITY.

Mr Adam C Mc.Cay, well known among newspaper men, who but a short time since arrived back in Aus■ralia from a, tour of the East and America, was.welcomed in Sydney lasfc week by members of the Journalists' Institute, of Which"'he'"is 'vice-presi-dent. '•"!,''

'Mr McCay at the outsell strongly deprecated the censorship that had robbed Australia of al Iknowledge of Eastern affairs and diplomacy during a period of. years synchronising with the war, The censorship, arising in Great Britain, and echoed here, had been inspired primarily by,some special regard for susceptibilities of Japan. But i\< had been enforced with 'such stringency that the press of this continent was absolutely debarred from allowing the people of Australia to trace in any way 'lihe current activities and development of Japan, and the significant diplomatic movements which were taking place iu the Orient. Nothing had been learned of the remarkable acquisitiveness- of Japanese policy; noHiing was told of the coercion of China; .we had even. been prevented from, telling of the export and import trade of Japan, so that we could noli realise the growth of Japanese trade, which had become one of the most serious problems, in connection wit]v Australian manufaeiiuring development. Only the other day he had found a soft goods man carying 40 per cent.' of Japanese imports, as against 3 per cent, before thenar. That kind of •evidence of trade had been growing up for years, yet' the newspaper men of Australia had been absolutely forbidden to enter upon such an examination as would haye„ apprised the public of it. j He found that frankness—absolute frankness—was the best method of dealing with the Japanese. Undoubtedly the Japanese were depressed by the exclusive policy of Australia and America.- In the main their leaders admitted the: propriety of any small '■' nation *sk& Australia., defending -jits, own national:. ..co.her.eu^ 1 its power.i itself;jw-as'.evidence of,,.the; great mistake in Imperial and Aus|| tralian poliey~m "supposing, nations like Australija ; ' and.,' Japan;! could be serf^jcj 1 Toy a>pqH6y-ofpoppy|: cock—of' 'pretence thai Australia- oti<" the one hand did.not have a definite policy, Jin4 on the other hand. Japan was a country of extraordinary perfection such that it was little more than immoral to criticise. : - :

"I sincerely hope," he" added, ''that the Australian press will see that it never again submits to euc% ■an improper extinguisher as wag put s upon it during the war." .Mr M'Cajf went on to say that in everything Japan had touched in her association with the'occidental'world she had been a little debased-and % little; debasing. Her colonisation wM by the bayonet. Korea was subject to a personal''military >igovernment| To contrast Japan's methods, witf| ! in°#e Pnillppinei| „wasr to,, discover startling differenee;s| 'ln ne r '' diplomacy '*'Japan "' tvas not the, world.was, ; for. simplicity. She was indulging ; ii| the old duplicity. Japanese money; kept going the wars of the north and south of China, and so Japan, getting concessions outweighing her advances, secured ascendancy. She Ws indeed the one militarist, nation left? pn earth. Where her merchants went'..the soldiers went with him. The guest made it clear that he expressed not merely his own opinions, bu.<; those of eminent Japanese he had mot. __