New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-01-03
JAPAN'S ARMY AND NAVY.

There may and there may not be war in the
far East But whether there Is or not, it IS
well to make note Of the fact that Japan is
swiftly coming to the fore as one of the great
military and naval Powers not only Of the
Eastern Hemisphere but OF all the world. She
is to-day building more ships and better ships
than any other Power, with the single excep
ton of Great Britain, and at the present rate
of progress will in few years rank as the
second naval Power of the world. This sounds
startling when we remember that at the time
Of Trafalgar the Land of the Rising Sun was of
no more account in the world than the Fiji
Islands, and that down to a generation ago it
was reckoned a semi-barbarous country. The
idea that 1t will. within the lives of men who
remember it's opening" become the rival of
the Power that opened 1t, and Of France and
Germany, seems like a fairy tale. Yet 1t is
the sober truth.
Japan is now building in England four first
class battle-shlps, one first-class cruiser of
twenty-three knots, two gigantic armored
cruisers OF twenty knots and eight torpedo-bOat
destroyers Of thirty knots. In Germany she is
building one armored cruiser and eight tor
pedo-boats and in France one armOred cruiser
and four torpedo-boas. In this country she
has ordered two cruisers of twenty-three knots,
and at home she is building three cruisers, one
armOred cruiser and three torpedo-bOats. At
the end of the Chinese war she had forty-thrce
ships, besides torpedo-boats She will by 1906
have added thereto six batte-ships of about
$1,000 tons each, six armored cruisers of $500
tons each five other cruisers, three torpedo
gunboats, eleven tOrpedO-boat destroyers and
ninety torpedo boats. All these will, of course,
be of the latest and most approved pattern.
An example of their quality is furnished by
one Of the warshlps now approaching compile
ton in England. which will be the largest and
most powerful battle-ship ever built for any
navy in the world. surprising even the levia
thans of Great Britain. 1t will be 43S feet long
and 20 feet wide. with n displacement Of 1920
tons. II will be armorcd FROM stem TO stern
with nine inches Of Harvey steel, and IFS bar
bettes will have fourteen inches Of such armor.
Its batteries will include four Pinch guns,
fourteen 6-inch rapd-fring guns and thirty-two
smaller guns and five torpedo tubes. It's indl-
Gated horsepower will be not less than 14.5OO,
supplied by twenty five Bellevllle boilers. That
is the sort Of craft Japan is getting.
With such a navy Japan will be secure from
any invasion of her island home, no matter
who may try to succeed where the great Kublai
failed But besides that she will have an army
that could give a good account OF itself against
any that could be sent to that part OF The world
by any other Power. At the close of the Chi
nesc war the japanese army consisted OF 'o'oOo
men on a peace footing and 26SOOO on war
footing. The strength has now been raised to
$4,000 and 10000 respectively, apart from
the gcndarmerle and militia. That makes n
formidable army In size. AS for It's quality. lis
conduct in the Chinese war leaves little room
for doubt that 1t will compare favorably with
that Of almost any other The japanese soldier
appears to combine dash and spirit with logged
persistence In n remarkable degree. He has
all the disregard Of pain and death that the
most fatalistic Chnaman has and the lntelll-
gence and discipline Of the European. An in
vading army, supposing It to get past the fleet,
would have to cope with n force equal to Itself,
man for man, and would therefore have to be
itself equal TO that force In numbers. That any