JAPAN.

Colonist, Volume LXI, Issue 15044, 11 April 1919, Page 2

JAPAN.

, A NEW ZEALAND GIRL'S' VIEW. -I

I A Christehprch business girl who is now 'living in; Tokio has some very interesting things to say in a letter to a friend in tho 1 former city._ i "From the newspapers just at this ,time, I read of ..the controversy ragrng ' over the possession of certain German colonies by Japan and Australasia, and as a New1 with always my country's1 interests at heart, I should i say. 'Keep the Japanese away from our shores—Australasia is no place for thi> Asiatic' The nation of Japan looms up as a, menace, and one\ which in a few years hence may be difficult to contend against, f should hate to'think of my country being sullied'with the footsteps of thp "Japanese. I have lived amongst the Japanese —have talked with thenf r worked in business with them, rubbed shoulder to- shoulder with'them in the streets,, street-cars, shops—in fact,, everywhere— and from experience with them I should conjure our country to have.nothing"to do with them. Sinee1 the armistice,1' and when conditions assume normal,: I believe we shall find very,few articles bearing the insignia 'Made'in Japan,' because there, isn't' a question as to the enormous amount of goods''manufactured in this country being of an inferior standard. They are now agitating fiercely the abolition of 'race discrimination' under, the existence of President Wilson's 'League? of Nations,' but even^if countries decide iba adopt this-xnethod and laws permitting the /coloured faces to enjoy the same privileges as the white people, the deep-rooted feeling of the individual 1 towards the Orientals arid other races [that ar-e,.not white still remains—there 'can be no abolition of the individual feel-' jing or attitude towards such nations, j Personally I should feel the same; to-! wards the Japanese whether laws raised them to the standing of Europeans or. npt r and 1 am sure there, are thousands who share my views on this'point: It is going to be a difficult, problem. 'The leopard cannot change his spots'; neither can whole 'nations alter in a day /the ideas they have cherished for centuries concerning yellow, black, and brown peoples. From time immemorial we have despised.the coloured races and perhaps the-detestation is felt more keenly.by those who live in the centre of a yelloV race. At all events, it would he a sad day for Australasia were Japan to succeed m her desires... . .-.. • . "As a country, Japan is very disappointing—seeing the way it has been written of for so long, and one realises .mpi-e than ever the truth in the slogan, 'It pays to Advertise!' Japan is one of the. most widely-advertised countries ,m the-worM, and I am afraid the goods are not up to sample! However, there ;is an Amerrcan phrase which seems to fit right here which runs: 'Get While .the (letting Is Good,' and the 'getting' is pretty..good here just now. I guess that is the-reason why so many foreigners remain liere, for not anyone whom I 'have met really likes either Japan 'or the Japanese^