The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-06-18
The Revival Of Asiatic Prestige.

The Revival OF Asiatic Prestige.
It is now more than twentythree hun
bred years since HERoDoTUs expounded
to the assembled Greeks his celebrated
theory that the cardinal fact in history
was the interaction Of Asia and Europe,
the pendulum OF ascendency swinging
now to the East and now to the West.
From the fall Of Troy to the memorable
land and sea fight at Mykale he depicted
many vicissitude, but OF course ne
could not foresee that the grandsons OF
the men who heard him would witness
the destruction Of the Persian Empire
BY ALEXANDER and the penetration OF
India by the Macedonian phalanx. AS
little could the Western peoples, which
in the nineteenth century despoiled and
insulted China and wrenched open the
gates Of Japan, have expected that in the
course OF a few decades Far Eastern
nation would exhibit degree Of military
and naval efficiency unsurpassed, if
eoualed, in the annals Of mankind.
Had our memories been more tena-
cious, none of us would have taken for
granted, as most OF us have, that Asia
was beyond the hope of resurrection,
doomed to permanent prostration under
the European heel. Such undoubtedly,
was the delusion in which the Eastern
subjects of the Roman Empire long
abided. although such defeats as those
OF CRAssUs and NALERIAN ought to
have excited deep misgivings. Every
body imagined that the Oriental wave
had spent itself when HANNIBAL was
routed at Zama, and nobody could have
anticipated that, from the second half
OF the seventh to near the close OF the
seventeenth century, Europe would be
haunted with the dread Of Asiatic in
yasion and conquest. Yet more than a
thousand years we're to elapse from the
seizure OF Roman Syria by a successor
OF MoHAMMED to SoBIEsKI's repulse
OF the Turks from before the walls OF
Vienna. OF all Aryan countries Russia
had least reason to arrogate an innate
superiority over the Turanian stock.
The Grand Dukes OF Muscovy had been
paying tribute for two centuries to the
Mongol rulers of the Golden Horde when
the Turks took Constantinople, and some
three and a half centuries more were
control Of the Crimea. Even China in the
seventeenth century, when the Manchu
dynasty was young, drove Muscovte
pioneers and merchants out Of Man
churia and forced them by treaty to
retire behind the Amur River. History,
therefore, will but repeat itself when
Russia submits to similar boundaries
at the command OF the Japanese
1t is incontestable, if we consider the
size and equipment Of the armies de-
spatched by Russia to the scene of war
in the Far East, that we have witnessed
the most stupendous effort ever yet
made by Europe in its age-long struggle
for the mastery Of Asia. Compared
with the multitude of disciplined soldiers
WITCH, the hoplites Of ALEXANDER, the
legions Of TRAJAN, the mail clad hosts
Of the Crusaders, seem insignificant and
impotent. At one time or another dur
ing the last sixteen months Russia has
launched across Lake Baikal more than
half million disciplined soldiers, sup
piled with the ripest products OF military
science-only to see them succumb to
the smashing blows Of OYAMA like the
SHOWS Of Siberia beneath summer 8
sun. In the camp, the hospital and the
battlefield the Japanese have excelled
their European antagonists. They have
exhibited the virtues of ancient, me-
dieval and modern soldiers combined,
showing themselves at once more daunt-
less, more chivalrous and more scientific
than the Russians.
Here, then, at the outset of the twen-
tieth century, Asiatics have proved them
selves capable Of beating Europeans in
the game Of war, alike upon the land
and on the ocean We are witnessing
fresh confirmation of the theory OF
HERoDoTUs that the earth's surface is
forever fated to be the theater of racial
interaction. The vertiginous rapdity
with which the Japanese have assim-
lated and applied the economical, the
mechanical, the military. the naval and
the medical science of the West, and the
amazing facility with which they have
shamed their pretended masters, throw
lurid light upon the arrogance which
has .f1ippantly asserted Better fifty
years Of Europe than a cycle OF Cathay!"
A people like the Japanese, which has
learned more in thirty years than the
Russians have learned in three hundred,
may we'll deem itself qualified to teach.
or this, at all events, we may be certain,
that about Japan's qualifications to play
the schoolmaster and the paternal auto
crat there is not trace of doubt in Asia.
Nowhere upon the globe does success
command homage so profound and
obedience so unquestioning as it does
among the Asiatics. There is not a
bazaar in India not felt tent in Turkes
tan, in which the name of the Mikado
is not whispered with mysterious rever-
ence. All differences of creed are sunk
under the electrifying influence of racial
gratitude and pride. Nations long OBJ
pressed, despised and despairing, are
awakening from torpor and heavine a
sigh Of relief. Is 1t possible, their eyes
say TO ono another, that thu day of "a.