LESSONS FROM JAPAN.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12870, 4 January 1906, Page 3

LESSONS FROM JAPAN.

Lieut.-General Sir lan Hamilton, -whose name is familiar to New Zealanders through his part in the Boer War, accompanied the Japanese Army m its campaign against Russia in Manchuria, and was the chief official military representative of Great Britain with the Army. He has recently published a book' on his observations, and a London reviewer says that nobody has, so far, produced such an entertaining and instructive book about the war. Even in respect of literary manner and style Geseral sruiii!lon is equar io ilss llvgxisst •-:' yur

ready war-writers; while his materia] is naturally superior in interest and authority. been varied and extensive, and he enjoyed the confidence of General Ruroki and his staff to an extent altogether denied to newspaper men."

The book is mostly in the form "of a diary and much of it now reads like fulfilled prophecy. Sir lan Hamilton had not been long in yjapan before he had made up his own mind, and informed his Government as to the probable, nay, the certain result of the war. _ Thus a month before the battle of the Yaln he wrote: " In these letters just dispatched, the last poor shreds of my military reputation have been staked upon a forecast that the Japanese army will beat the Russian army, whenever they meet on terms even approaching equality. Further, I have fairly let myself in for the opinion that the Japanese army, battalion for battalion, surpasses any European army,, excepting only the British Armv at its best. a '

[ Ami now for his reasons:— "It was because I had fought j against the Boers in 1881 that it was borne in upon me how long and difficult would be the way to success in 1899. It was because of my conviction* that up-to-date civilisation is becoming less and less capable of conforming to the antique standard of military virtue, and that the hour is at hand when the modern world must begin to modify its ideals, or prepare to go down before some more natural, less and less nervous type." A great admirer of the Japanese as soldiers, by reason mainly of their remaining m. touch with nature, and leading the simple life, General Hamilton is equally enthusiastic about the industrial capacity of the Manchurian Chinese:—

They are, in fact, a startling revelation, and I have a. feeling in their presence"as if I had all my life been systematically duped and misted by the stereotyped European auc -Americrji delineations of the Heathen Chi nee. . . .1 can on ] y di scover m t j-

inalities so admirable that they fill me -with' ilarui when I think how far we have fallen behind them. To me these Northern Chinese are an,astounding set of fellows.» I have never m my life imagined a set of people so passionately, so feverishly devoted to work."

Is it then to be the fate of the -white mail ultimately to sink and disappear?— 'lt depends, in my hnmble opinion, on whether he has the good' sense to close his ears zo all those who tell him that wars and preparations for wars axe pnre evil and that pure unadulterated commercialism would be an earthly paradise, instead of the limbo of dead souls which I personally should conceive it to be."

General Hamilton: is ardent in his eulogy of Japanese women—"who are the most charming example of the feminine gender m the world. Looks may be a matter of taste, but charm is not.' The smile of the Japanese girlvis an enchantment: she looks exquisitely good, and I am sure those looks at least do not belie her. . . . . She is intensely, essentially feminiiie. Asiatic women still guard the secret of what Western women show signs of losing. Men have always been selfish, but now an appalling danger confronts civilisation in the shape of the American selfish woman and her imitators in ' Europe." ' As the Japanese women are pure and feminine, so the men are masculine and c'.ean:—" Probably there was never such an army as this in the history of the world. It is possible to march on a "hot day in the middle of a battalion without any offence to the most delicate nostrills. We, I am told, are by no means equallv inoffensive to the Japanese. . . . It is dreadful even to suspect that, when we think ourselves most fascinating, vre may succeed in reminding our pretty geisha friends < of a Zoological garden on a hot afternoon."

.And then how the martial Japanese love music, even of the Scotch ard Irish kinds! One night after dinner an adjulpnt came over with a message from Kuroki: j "He said the General feared J "mi<*ht be' Jopely, and be hoped X would" come I round and see hiin. As this was probably the last chance I would have for a long time of hearing any music, he had sent for the Guards* band to enliven the occasion. Nothing could have been more considerate or kind. . . . The moment I appeared the band struck up the 'Garb of Old' Gaul.' which is the grand march of the Gordons. I didn't know how they found this out, but I waSj rather touched. The band now began to play a selection of Irish airs, and Kuroki, seeing that I was listening, asked me whether the Irish were fond of music. I'told him yes, that they liked simple kinds of music. He said * I suppose this song is about some love-story?' It was " The Minstrel Boy.' and I was, indeed, glad to be able to naswer him, "Xot at all, Excellency ; this is no sentimental ditty ; it tells of a. young player on the samisen (harp), who left it behind and took with him his father's sword when he went to the wars.' Kuroki was pleased ; he smiled his charming smile and said, *A very appropriate air, then, for us to-night; we leave all our music here, tomorrow we advance with the swords of our ancestors."

How did the Japanese counterpart of the Minstrel Boy comfort himself in the ensuing battle?

I -went on to the new temple {on the MotienlingK and there met ail tbe officers -who had bfeen present at the fight, including Lieutenant Yoshj, who is said to have killed eight Russians with his two-handed sword, although he himself is modest and only claims to have fairly split, the skulls of three. He is a singularlv -weak-looking youth, only about twenty-two years old. but certainly his sword, which he had cut something hard and thick, for it was notched like a saw (like Jack FalstafFs at Gadshill), although a fresh edge Lad already been put upon it where it was not too much, indented."

When first Qeneral Hamilton, the Gordon Highlander Scot, beheld uncouple of Russian captives—" I confess it gave me a sharp pang to see white men prisoners of Asiatics. I must straggle \ .-.gainst this fee'ing; but it is instinctive end deeplv rooted, inherited doubtless from the time of the Crusades, or possibly from eome even earlier epoch. If these are my ineradicable sensn.tior.s. I must learn to make more allowances for Japanese coldness and suspicion, as it is only reasonable that their feelings to me should be the counterpart-of my feelings towards them." General Hamilton's reports on what he saw iu a military war are, as a whole expressed in ths following:— "Throughout this campaign I have been anxiously watching: I trust in no spirit of envy, but simply with deep professional interest to see if the moment would arrive when I could honestly exclaim, "Our fellows could have gone one better!" Thus

far (the Tattle of Yoshirei), except as regards a few mechanical details, such as road-making, heliographs, etc., and certain tactical matters which must always remain matters of opinion, I have had to answer my question negatively, in so far at least as th« infantrv is concerned. But, when I viewed this little hollow, -where the lines of the opposing marksmen were dearly marked out to a- man by the piles of empty cartridge cases—then at last I was able to recall with pride the prolonged fighting at 200 yards range (Waggon Hill}—the bayonet charge of the Devons across just «*uch an interval and such a piece of ground—the less of all ti.e ers~.pr.i;y orSt-crs. nr.d a third "f the men in a few seconds—the piercing of the enemy's line, and his compete overthrow. On ♦!»'« nronsinn. at any rate. then. I fee" that, we have no reason to shrink from a comparison." General Hamilton's dairy stops short of Liaoyang. the Sbalm. and Mukdcs; but it is an admirable work of its kind.