AFFAIRS IN THE EAST.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXI, Issue 12584, 23 January 1905, Page 3

AFFAIRS IN THE EAST.

HONG KONG MERCHANT INTER- ; VIEWED.

Among the passengers who arrived in Lyttelton. by the Zealandia on Saturday was Mr J. C. Gerard, merchant, of Hong Kong, who is making a tour of the colony for tjje benefit of his health. Chatting with a. representative" of .the 'iTimaru Herald," Mr, Gerard sajd that .«Q far the colony had... than come up to the expectations he had formed- of it. Auckland was much like a combination of an English and a* Japanese seaport, while Lyttelton harbour was surprisingly like the entrance to Nagasaki. poncemjng the war, -ifr Gerard remarked that the general fjfllgg in Hgiig'|£ong and other eastern ports" was strongly. proJapanese, - and Europeans there ridiculed the ideas of*.the ."yellow- peril:" " Germany at present-hasr chief command" of the; Manchurian irada,-with ' th,* -United States'a close second, and he believed that even if J»p»n obtained domination of Maachttiii

these nations would still retain their interest's. . The war had had a depressing effect on trade, and except in military munitions arid coal,-business had of late been very slack. In Japan itself, added Mr Gerard, one could scarcely beheve that Japan was fight ing for her national existence In Yoko hama, .'save for the occasional quiet departure of a body . of'troops, and the difficulty Of obtaining "boys," as the native servants are called, one would not know that a war was- in.progress.