The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-02-09
JAPAN, RUSSIA AND KOREA.

| Russia proposes TO await blow froli
Japan before committing an act OF
war SIZE wants to be in the position
! of the aggrieved party. japanese di-
pIomacy. however. is astute enough TO
/ force her hand. in that Japan will not
attack Russia but will simply seize ho-
/ rea which does not belong TO the Gar
| and thus compel Russia TO invade
! foreign country for the sake of putting
the Japanese out of it. 1t is hard TO
see how the Gar can act in such a
case without becoming the aggressor.
AS the crisis develops the Manchurian
iesue recedes to the background.
Nothing is said by Japan about com
pelling Russia TO evacuate emma
great northern province. In fact, for
a long time past it has been plain that
Japan began on Manchuria so as to
engage the good will of England and
the United States and to bluff Russia
into a compromise by which in return
for the possession of Manchuria, she
would concede Japan the ownership of
Korea. That is why Great Britain
withdrew from her quasi alliance with
Japan and why Americas diplomatic
interest in the affair cooled off. Now
we have the case stripped of its di-
plomacy and if war comes it will be
over Korea as bone of contention be-
+u-oa, +vro hungry mowers
Someone has said that Japan will be
ruined if she goes to war and ruined
if she does mot. Perhaps the case is
not so bad as that, for a war ending
where she wants to be; but it is equal
ly certain that, if war should end in
defeat or if it should not come at all, |
leaving territorial matters in statu |
quo, the case of japan would rapidly |
go from bad to worse. The alterna
tive, expansion or starvation, is not SO |
far off. Japan, with a territory of |
about the same size as California, has
as many people in it as The United
States had at the reorganization, after
the Civil War; and they are increasing
at a portentous rate. In japan babies
are everywhere under foot. Poverty
increases as the population presses
upon the means of subsistence; and
the only remedy is to be found in emil
grafton. There must be an outlet for
surplus people. But where?
4
Certainly the world is not at the feet
If Japan to choose from. Australia
wants to be white and is not hospit-
lble to the brown man. South Africa
prefers Chinese. Toxic understands
hat it is not wise to food the western
United States with coolies. China is
rowded. What room there may be in
he tropics, Japanese, being northern $
ace, do not covet. The one place left I
n the world where millions of them | I
ould be accommodated, is the place |
learest home, the hermit empire of | !,
Korea, the population Of which could |
,e doubled without impairing the re- !
ources of the soil; a land which could |
dSAS Cutie oiIuef the Je1pdiIeSe lIIpe- 4 4
ial system. Unless Japan acquires ,
t, there must soon occur a struggle
or existence in the island empire end
ng, as such struggles do, in the sur
-ival of the fttest. II
Russia's remedy for this state of
Kings would undoubtedly be the alb
orption of japan into that vast con- :
cries of provinces, races, nationalities t
md creeds which go to make her i
mighty and complex empire She !,
would open her domain to her new +
ub5eets. But Japan is as JEALOUS of l
er own identity, which she has main I
aimed for nearly 1000 years, as is any
Their power and she cannot be blamed :
Or not sacrificing honor to safety She 7
oes not wish to lose her people in the t
elbow and white hordes where Russia
-ould make room for them; but rath-
r, in the old manly way, carve out /
lace with the sword where she could
eep her surplus inha bitants under her
wn flag. In this adventure Japan
ill find wide sympathy not only be-
ause her case is desperate but be- c
ause it is not best for civilization to r
It Asia become Cossack. !