WHAT JAPAN HAS GAINED BY THE WAR.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIX, Issue 12657, 20 November 1905, Page 4

WHAT JAPAN HAS GAINED BY THE WAR.

According to an article -in the " Fort nightly Review," the gains of Japan a the close of the waa* are much greate and far more substantial than is com monly supposed. By the annexation o the Korean peninsula, and the souther i half of Sagba'ien, she has added at on stroke a hundred thousand ..square mile to' her territory, which may be compare to the., incorporation of Spain witj France, arid has thus secured an oufcle for her. swarming population close t her own doors. Not only so, but th Sea of Japan is now enclosed with ji almost continuous ring of Japanees te ritory; and; with a navy adequaw r her geographical advantages, Japa will possess the best strategic base i the world, to say nothing of her acqais tion of Port Arthur, which Rutsia ha rendered the Gibraltar of the Far Eas and Japan is under no obligation i dismantle. By the transfer to Jw. < the railway from Niu-chwang U> 'vwanj cheng-tse, which runs through *bo rid est of the three Manchu provinces, th; region, it is expected, will !'■* as outi pletely annexed, from a cainnierci point of view, as* Korea itself; in fao Japanese immigrants are alron.dy «; tling in Southern Manchuonia as fast i in the former. In Niu-ohwang th< number 6000, and their ranks aa-o be-in augmented at the rate of from -.r0 ( ICO per day. " Upon the natio.ml las the Japanese have now secured, o serves tlhe writer of the article, ' o-. allies may reasonably hope to w-.J niji double their population, and far mo than double their wealth, within single generation"; so that, settir aside the war debt, which has had 1 be incurred for the prosecution of tl war, " the gain upon the credit side the national account appears immense Nor must the moral results of the w be overlooked; for, as we are reminde " No nation, since Marathon, has a hieved greater glory, and even the Tols riots have been, after all, exceeding Greek. Japan Bias, perhaps, not gai» all she sought—has perhaps not gain< all she might—'but she 'has closed glorious struggle by a glorious peace Moreover, a single campaign on sea in land has enabled her to vindicate h claim to rank on a footing of equali with the greatest military and nay powers of the world.