THE EAST VISITED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 20055, 18 September 1920, Page 7

THE EAST VISITED.

j fl TRAVELLER'S SMPRESSIO^: KOREA AND MANCHURIA. S). JAPANESE PENETRATION. Mr J. M. Mitchell, a. wcll-knowi Clinstohiiroli business man, is travelling iii the East. The. letter which is printed below was received from him recently. It j 3 c i ated ~u i v lfi| frQm jEckm. Mr Mitchell travelled from Japan to Korea and Manchuria, and ho has soma interesting observations to rank©. ' My Inst letter whs dated from Kyoto As 1 decided to go tip through Kore and around to Pekin by Mukden, had a long journey before me.. Still the journey was mostly new to mo, am J. found the run very interesting. T ' make a day journey from Kyoto t |j Shnnonoseki, the end or the Hondo Is. kind, yon have' to make an early start (6.15 fhis rail journey take the last train over fourteen hours, bu |j all this time can ho pub in with mud ! interest. Tho train passes throng! J some of tho most fertile land in Japan and tho scenic views aro very hue. 1 great part of tho run is on tho sea, coast and the Inland Sea is in full view Hundreds of inlets aro seen, and ther< are fine bays filled with fishing; villages These make a most charming view from ; distance. All the houses "are built o wood, and nono ever gets painted, have noticod this all over Japan. Tin soft pino timber used here does no' harm by exposure to the weather. Tin Houses simply turn brown, and this col our matches the rice straw that is usei for roofing. A Japanese village look: liko ,i cluster of beo hives, for the I houses aro ns closo together as it i: possiblo to build them. When a fire Rets a good start, tho whole lot go ofl in smoke, and fires aro an everyday occurrence. Tho Japanese havo a practice oi building _ all the villages at the fool of tho hills, and the flat land is usee for cultivation. Every little plot is ter raced. I have not seen one plot of lane vith a- fence dividing one lot from another. The'' division is all done bj these little ridged terraces. You nevo'i see a terrace- ou the same level as tho one adjoining. This work must take >x great deal of labour, but tho Japanese do not mind work. You see them ir the plots of land from break of day tc tho last rays of light, and in the mosl trying work- a man or woman can do, There aro as many women in tho rice i fields as men, and all aro working-up to the knees in water and mud. Wc eat our rice at home, but do not know of tho amount of labour that is giver to produce it. ltice by no means takes up all tho time of tho farmers. Beans and barley are grown in thousands of plots. You never seo two lots of the tame kind close together. They separate all the plantings by varying the variety of growths, so if ono lot fails another will make good. This, to our way of thinking, makes a lot more labour. Tho Korean people live in small, scattered villages, built mostly at the foot of the hills. There is no pretence of street forming. They simply have narrow winding lanes, that run "in and out among tho dwellings. Tho Koreans follow tho same lino of cultivation, as i is common to Japan, and there is a similarity in the everyday customs down south. I was surprised to seo so manv i of the Japanese over in Korea—all the I trains aro simply packed with them. At Seoul, the capital, all the great trading houses are run by Japanese capital. There are very big stores for retail selling. t You will get as good a retail street in Seoul, run by Japanese, as you will see in any' part of Japan. Mostly all the good's a.re sent across lrom Shimonoseki by tho steamers, which are crossing all day long, besides tho two ferry steamers that meet the two express trains that come in night and morning. These steamers are always full up, and if you do not book ahead you will probably find that you tvill bo held up a day. 1 am fully satisfied that Japan means to make the very best use- she can of Korea. There is still plenty of room • here for Japan to find an opening for her overcrowded population. I havo inquired about tho population of Korea, arid as- near as I can get information the rough estimate is about thirteen million—about ten millions in Korea and tho rest further north in Manchuria. Of this population quite 90 per cent aro on the land fanning, and n:osfc oi tho remainder are in the mines. Mining is carried on very extensively in Korea-—very little manufacturing is done. ° I could not help noticing that all the Koreans wear white material, no' matter what sort of work is clone. liven the men and women working in the coal mines have the white material. J inquired why this was so, and found that the custom arose from the practice of wearing white for mourning. As they had to keep this up for twelve months for friends and relations, and rdso tor the. Royal Family and all the Ing people, they simply went into mourning all the time. Now they do not worry who dies, thev are prepared, and never break tho duty of honour to tho dead. Tho Korean as a man is no more enterprising than the Chinaman. He is quite content to live as he has'lived for the past five hundred years. So personally Ido not blame tiio Japanese for getting a movo on—and a movo it is, for this country will be revolutionised in the next ten years, ion cannot go into any city and see more large buildings going up than you «m see in S&oul to-dav. One of the finest hotels in the East is here, and it is owned and run bv Japanese. It is so well done that it leaves the hotels m Japan far behind in every particular, and what is more to a ■'tourist, cheap compared to those in Kobe or Yokohama. I can see tho commercial enterprise here of tho Japanese—for he moans to make the Korean run to China very popular. Tourists as a nilo do not stay long in Seoul. It is a break in the journey after the long train ride. Anything is a change railing in Korea, for you do not see anything in nature that attracts. It is about as uninteresting as a» run Jrom Christenuroh to Timaru. Perhaps you get more rivers and betters land. ]. should imagine this from the amount ot cultivation ono sees, and Ihe general look of the crops. The hills . arc bare enough, but it is in the hills tlie mining is done. Timber is very «'-aree. and what is used comes from the north. in railing up from Seoul to Autung, tho last stop in Korea, the land is on a much higher plane, and the cultivation widens out more on our *' lines; Still no fencing is used, and I have never se<ui one fence dividing the laud either in Japan or Korea, They ; sunply measure on ridges and stone ' posts. Fencing is not wanted, ns you ' never see any entile or sheep. " ' 1-i is at Aiitung you get, the last in- ( spection by the Japanese policeman, J and the Inst demand for passport. ' The Japanese i-pgunp. officially stops ' here, and a good thing too, for ! the calls for inspection are too '• many. Still it, is done, politely, ; !or a Japanese is never rude. He simply asks. '' Where you go? ( Where you from? Ys'here- you lire"" ' and "How old?" Then he'looks over ' tho pass, and says, " Good-bye," with a ? smile. -No further passes are asked i for—you can go to China and run the I country for all anybody seems to care. <• It is from Autung tho railway crosses I the great Manchurian flat lands, c stretching away in every direction as * far as tho eyo can see. It is quite 1 flat, thero are very few rivers to cross, v and it ia an ideal country to put down ;; t railway cheap, It would du our Can* ' s

texbury fanners good' to see the whea barley,, beans ana Indian corn growin here. I cannot gay how the reapin is done. tio .much could not bo liai vested by 'hand, as they do in Japan. The train journey from Autung t i Mukden-takes abpat twelve hours, au • every mile of thin, journey is filled u with, farming. Tins is only the. fnnj! of what there is of Manchuria. It a Autung tho Japanese inspection stop: his enterprises do not, for lie ha pushed up to Mukden in good husinet form—so much so that Mukden now : tho wonder of tho East. The old Chin city is situated about one mile from th station. How he has taken pos-scssio of this intervening space of land I d not know, but one tiling is sure, ho , in possession. When J went to ou British Consul to get passes for th sights of Mukden, 1 inquired whose en terprise was at work up hero to con struct such great buildings, and fori such modern, streets. He told me thi was all the work of the Japanese inve; • tors. Thoy must havo spent million J up here to do what one can see. Th 1 biggest buildings I have ever seen ar -• now in course of erection, and hun 1 dreds are just about finished. All th J fronts of .these magnificent building > are of granite, and the ornamcntatioi - of Manchuriau marble. Marble her • seems as common as Oamar'u stone ' i s with us. Tho macadam streets ar t also very fine. If Japan cannot sa; i that Manchuria, is hers, anyone can sc l who runs the trade, and who it is tha , handles the money. Even here, wher I tho China dollar should be used, it i . pushed back, and tho yen run for al . it can be. Tho Japanese postage ; stamp is the only one recognised ii . Mukden. ! I was talking to the manager of th< f Mukden Railway Hotel, which is en [ tirely Japanese, even to the porter ant . servants. This man took mo to a maj ; in his office, and started to point, ou: > what the great Manchurian railway - meant to tho Japanese. Ho told m< [ that what 1. Could too in Mukden wai 5 just a sample of what was going on n\ . and down the line. They had tht s lease of Port Arthur for ninety-nint i years, and that was quite long euougl : to lay hold of all the great peninsula Anyway the Japs had all the trade now' and tens of thousands of tho Japanese ! aro scattered about tho country. Ji ; fact, you do not see the Japanese thii: . cut before you leave- Mukden. Tho next run is right ou to I'ekiti Had luck for me tho country is all ir . a state of excitement owing to iht military quarrel. Fighting is going or ■ down liio hue. L have lieen at? Pekh lor six days, doUig the sights. I die . intend to stop a little longer, but ilu . fighting seemed to-be getting worse, am 1 Jught have a difficulty in getting • clown to Tientsin to meet my steamer ii 1 stay, l.'cldn ; s a frightful place for acute differences, all caused by the i rival generals. This set of men 'seems to be the ruling lorce, and the llepubi bean President means nothing t,o them, At present tho civil war between the generals may mean tho loss of inan.y lives. One of the generals has the most money and tho greater number ol soldiers under his command, and ho alsc is backed very strongly by the Japanese. Ho has a Japanese wife as the first of his harem. The rest of the Chinese generals have decided to put him out of command, as his name is bad as a pro-Japanese. I feel heartily sorry for China that tilings are so badly managed in this great city, with a population of eloso on three million people. More than two-thirds live hand to mouth every day. To go about and see the misery and the amount of begging is sorrowful. Yet in the face of all this there is evidence of a wonderful past. Much wealth is in the hands of a few. All the Legation quarters here are very beautiful'in their buildings and the general surroundings. Thero are eight of the leading Powers bore with a stationed guard of three hundred men. At present tho Dutch are in the German legation quarters. Our people have all Indian soldier orderlies, and it has been so for the last five years. All our men Were sent home. Of all the Jiegations I consider the American the best. J hell- grounds must enclose tully tour acres. The Legations must stop here, because white people would not bo safe without this protection. iViuJo the Europeans are inside tiitcity walls there is comparative safetv, and the Chinese soldiers are faithful to the Republic. I was outside tho citj walls to-day, and saw many thousands of the cavalry in preparation for anv emergency that mav crop up. The horses are very lino looking, and themen look well also. From appearances II like tho Chinese soldier better than ■the Japanese. Here in North China the men are a very tall lot. Tho average height would be quite sft 9in His amassing the number-of rickshaw men you see here. Pekin lias no trams -the only place in the East that 7 havo seen that is without a train service, let the streets are wide and very fine. 1o" see hundreds of .tro-u }- ore two chains wide, but as all the. people seem to trot about their respective businesses ■n the rickshaws no one seems to miss tho tramcars. ]„ p e kin the number ot rjftehaws is about five thousand, and outside the walls the number is much about tho same. To my mind all the wealth of the nation has been spent in building lekins nails and huge palaces. Pekin is surrounded by huge high walls—l should judge from their appearance about forty feet high. At, every gateway they havo a great building 0 on top of tho wall. Such massive buildings make you wonder how such works were ever conceived, to sav nothing about the carrying out of tho work! the Yv inter Palaco is a verv lino place, with its fine lake and numerous buildings, its fine marble bridge crossing the artificial waterway. The amount of stone carving for railings seem to have no end. The Forbidden City, State Museum and Central Park a re'places of untold interest to a tourist, for this place was reserved for the Emperor and ns Court for centuries. It is here hat tho young Manchu Emperor still lives. He occupies a place separated from the main grounds. The Summer Palaco is about eleven miles from Pekin. This is reached by motor-cars, and t consider that for situation and design it could not Je surpassed in all the East, JUie grounds are forger than our Hagloy lark, and are surrounded by a very Jißh wall. This palace must have cost millions, but the Emperor did not care whoso money he spent as loner as it went for the Royal Family's pleasure. Un this lake inside the walls they built a marble boat fitted up very finely with high decks, with cverv device for epact introduced—even the. paddlo "'heels aro cut in marble. This boat is so constructed and placed as if about to start out on tho lake. The bottom is flat and rests on the lake's bottom, but the effect is there. Visitors go on this boat and go up on the top deck and get the view of all tho fine surroundings. With all China's wealth it interest I am of the opinion that the summer Palace and grounds are the . Jest. Outside, however, miserv reigns iuprumo in every quarter. Tho chillinn run naked and unwashed. The • icolie is also an object of pitv. He •annot buy clothes that arc fit to put < m. so he only gets short pants. Going lghtly clad is no hardship in tho smut ner, with the thermometer at 150 in -ho sun, but it is in the winter that ■he trouble starts, when the record is i 0 degrees of frost. No wonder many ire frozen to death every winter. i hope China may get men that can I lo something to lift this great mass cf ', lumauity. The missions are doing a [ ot tor sections, but they cannot pes'- L lbly help the great numbers. It - 3 only touching the fringe of China's leoplc. lam glad to say that some \ f tho millionaires of America, havo ;iven largely, and at the present time no ot the greatest hospitals in the •orld is nearly finished. This work - as been going on fur some years, rnd 'ill bo ready for occupation some time ] Ins year. Every Christian Church y aeai» to ho doing something, but the '

6 > work is very haVd, and not much pro-' g gross can be made in such filth and B poverty. Ido uofc recommend jtour- - ing China for plensure, but if you want 1o have- a soft heart for your ftiJow 0 man come here and you mil for ever a have a liberal purso for China's mission P work. I hope I may find things bets' ter down m Canton. Canton is a 1 g rca * for manufactures, and that '» places tho people in a better position, s and eliminates the dearth of employ' * ment you see here in Pekin. I hope s to got out of here to-day. If Ido * not perhaps I may.have to stop uatil 0 this fighting is over.