The age-herald., 1897-11-12
RESIGNATION OF COUNT
 OKUMA OF JAPAN
By E. ". B.

|
 to resign his position as minister of for
 eign affairs of Japan. That is. Col. Bulk,
 United States minister to Japan, so
 cables. I am sorry Count Okuma has
 resigned. I am sorry because I like war If Okuma had remadned foreign
 minister of Japan. there would have been
 a good chance for the Unted States to
 aaavs a nava5i war with Japan over the | Hawaiian troubles.
 | okuma is a brave fighter. He is a
 brave g=neraa I have met lots of nervy
 men in my life, but have never met one
 to equal this man in mental, moclal and physical courage. He is head and | shoulders above all men in Japan. Ha
 is frank. candid. courageous, determined, l and up-to-date.
 l Okuma was foreign minister of Japan when the present. Emperor, CT as we call him, ths MHkado, first assumed the l throne of the ttowery Kingdom some twenty-for years ago. At that time
 pean cities. He spent much time In Lon.
 don Paris and Berlin. He went to
 study tf1res questfous-fimance, naval warfare, and military equipment. He it
 was wlro adopted the uniform, equipment
 and tactics of the French army in Japan. l He it was who first ordered modern cruisers built in Great Britain for the l Japanese navy. He it was who estab- llsred the single gold standard of finance | tn Japan.
 Okuma fnaugurated the movement 1 which gave to Jalpan am army which, when it had the opportunity pTovsd it. self to be one of the finest fighting ma- chimes the world has ever known. He fnaugurated the navy which. though small. drove the grsat Chinese l iron clads from the open sea into the
 hanhdr of Well -Hai-wei and destroyed l them.
 His army and rSaviy ventures, adopted from the westsm ideas, proved emil nently successful But his adoption of the western Biea of finance was failure. Upon his return to Japan he adopted the western idea of finance. He placed Japan upon the single gold standard For two years and six months Japan alt- tempted the single gold standard of finance. At the end of that time, at Count Okuma's own suggestion. Japan adopted bimetallism. It eventually went to the silver Standard. Gold went to a premium in Japan.
 "The faot that gold went to premium in this country" said Count Okuma to me two years ago, "Ras been the cause of Japans great prosperity It caused our people to cearse buying imported ar- ticles because of the very high price they went to, regulated by our standard of money, and forced us to begin manu- featuring in this country. See where
 we are today dn Osaka alone. We now have thErty-six cotton factories in that city. We are making machinery and i'm deed almosh everything manufactured in any other part of the world. We are making them cheaper. We do not claim to be manufacturing country equal to England, Germany or the United States, but within ten years we will rank with any country on the face of the globe Yet we have had but twenty years of what you westerners term civilization in this country.''
 Att the time I had this talk with Count Okuma, the war between China. and Japan had just ended. Japan, when
 sued by China for peace, had made money demands upon that country. Count Ito. then foreign minister of Ja- pan had demanded of Li Hung Chang, the vaceroy of China, the payment of | one hundred million taels war indem- ;txr nd If in Ja nda In 1 China, the vastly productive island of | Formosa and the Liotung peninsular.
 including the fortress of Port Arthur and the great forts of We4-Hai- wei on the opposite side from Port Arthur. | of the channel leading to the Tten Tsin entrance by liver to Picking, the great capital of China. Id Hung Chang had r objected to the cession of either Wei Hai-Wei or Port Arthur.
 | But Ito had been firm, and had de- manded of Ii Hung Chang to either | cede this territory or else the Japanese army would march upon Picking and | take it. Lii Hung Chang, after a con- ference of ten days, agreed to the terms of peace. Then 1t was that the Russian government interceded. and through its minister in Japan issued an uftimatum
 
 would not consent that China cede the | Liotung peninsular to Japan. Count Ito | feared war with Russia, and withdrew | the demand for the Liotung peninsular, | including Port Arthur. This withdrawal on the paTr of Ito created much indig- 1 nation among the Japanese people and caused an uprising against the Ito min- | istry. Count Okuma was the leader in the movement He announced to me on
 the day of the memorable interview
 had with him, with great enthusiasm. | that Ito must resign. or else he would 1 be assassinated.
 l "If Ito refuses to resign, I would en- | courage his assassination" said Count l Okuma. Far better would 1t be for
 Japan to suffer defeat in naval warfare | than to exhibit cowardice."
 l It was few moneths after this that the Ito ministry was forced to resign, | and Count Okuma, by virtue of his great ability and popularity with the people,
 was made minister of foreign affairs.