DR. MORRISON.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11644, 23 August 1905, Page 4

DR. MORRISON.

The statement by Dr. Mbrrisbn tfiat' the peace negotiations between. ' ; Japan ' and Eussia have seemingly failed will attract considerable attention by the very repu-. tation of its author. Dr. Morrison has for many years represented the." London Times in the Far East, and his knowledge of Eastern affairs is probably not exceeded by that of any other white man. He went to Portsmouth, in the .United' , States, specially to 'watch the peace negotiations, on behalf of his paper. . The doctor is an Australian by birth and education, haying- been born at Geelong : in'' 1862, and he first drew public . atteption - to himself by accomplishing the- feat of walking across his native continent. - - He took his degree in medicine, but he was an investigator and a . diplomat by :■ predilection, and he soon found more congenial occupation" than that of ministering to the** medical needs of a small Australian com; ' munity. His home is now in Pekin, and r he is a prominent -figure in .North China: ' "There is something distinguished about Dr. Morrison," wrote $he correspondent of a London journal, recently, "something .•- that he does^not derive from' his immacu--late attire, from the nabob stick vith * which hhre r toys as .he. walks, or from the forward inclination of his head, characteristic of thinkers.- Indeed, his manner at first suggests the pedagogue, but when you see the man you know you have something jnore; you have a, man who can and does think" for^'himseTf; 1 a v 'man who ' can. scheme and with dogged pertinacity^ peg away until what he has set his heart uponT.having is obtained. He is hard -as *" Mini- : toba winter, a man of resolution and of power, a man devoted to a principle, or an idea or a rule of life; a man who will go long lengths to gain 'a point, .who, will find out means with which to accomplish his: self-set task, who will get at the rifht "

• people and will use them;, -a man who is unlikely to be generally loved, but may be esteemed, and cannot but be admired for. what he is; a man who may not possess many real friends, but is certain to have enemies and to be himself an implacable foe." Dr. Morrison has few of the graces we associate with the successful- diplomat, • and he frequently gives grievous offence to people by his blunt and., unsparing comment. Nevertheless, there, is probably no one in China for whom the British residents have a more genuine respect, and his journalistic'•statements always command attention.