The Hawaiian gazette., 1908-05-29

where admitted. for it was the begin
ming of the end of Americas purely
sentimental regard for Japan. With
in the last few weeks Japan so bungled
the quarrel with China regarding the
ship Tatsu Maru, that
China was enabled to call the attention
of the world to the fact that its strong
er neighbor was taking advantage of
Chinese weakness to force acceptance
of Japanese demands without a hear
ing
Whatever advantage Japan has
gained in it's struggle for supremacy
has been the result of war, or of some
other nations aid. But these facts do
not prevent the Japanese diplomatists
from pushing forward in their own pc
culiar way The story of the strangu-
lation of Korean independence by the
Japanese has been told to the world.
That Japan is determined to use its
domination of Korea for it's own pur-
poses and as a base for further ag-
erosion on the mainland of Asia is
clearly indicated by the trend OF
events.
Korea just now is the most fruitful
field of endeavor for Protestant mis-
sionaries in the world. American mis-
sion boards are sending scores Of men
and women into the country and they
are meeting with a measure of sue
cess unprecedented in the history of
modern missions. The Japanese atti-
;, hof If
suspicion. At home they welcome the
missionaries for the gifts of education
they bring. But the japanese know
that the American missionary is al
ways a partisan of the people among
whom he lives and works. Thus the
missionary in China is pro-Chinese, in
Japan he is pro-Japanese and in Korea
he is pro-Korean.
Prince Ito, Resident-General in Kor-
ca, actual head of the Korean govern
ment and real head of the Japanese
government, was asked what he
thought about the American mission
aries in Korea. He picked up a match
and placed it at arms length from
him on the table Then he took two
other matches and placed them near
the edge of the table in parallel lines,
pointing toward the first match. This
first match represents the betterment
of the condition of the common people
of Korea" said he. These two parallel
matches are the missionaries and my
self. We are both working for the bet
terment of the Korean people, they
along religious lines and 1 along polit-
ical and economic lines. AS long as
lla1 will
no conflict But if the missionaries
turn aside ever so slightly to interfere
in politics, then the time will come
when our paths will cross" continued
Prince Ito, moving the two matches in
illustration. when that time comes
:" the Elder Statesman flicked the
missionary match from the table with
his fingernail.
But the world powers have signified
their acquiesence in the japanese oc-
cupation of Korea and perhaps there
can be no objection to the Japanese
methods there from a diplomatic point
of view. Manchuria however, is an
other story. The Russians occupied
this Chinese province just after the
Boxer trouble eight years ago. They
continually promised to get out, but re-
fused to go until the Japanese army
drove them from the southern and
richest portion of the territory. The
japanese took possession and announc
ed that the "open door, policy was in
force and that all nations might come
in and trade. Japan controlled the
South Manchurian railroad, and of
course would keep enough soldiers
fbar 70 ri oil orb ell
turning over civel authority to the Chi
nese government.
But notwithstanding this "open
door," American trade in Manchuria
fell off and all merchants other than
Japanese have since labored under
great disadvantages. japanese mer-
chandise is shipped into Manchuria in
cases marked military supplies for
japanese government This means
that they come in practically free of
freight and entirely free of custom
duty, while other nations must pay
heavy freight charges to the japanese
railroad and also must pay the tariff
duties.
This device of labelling all kinds of
goods military supplies" ands thus
avoiding the customs laws cannot be
done without the sanction of the Japa-
nese government inspectors, even if the
government is innocent of completely.
Complaints have been made, but the
evil still goes on according to the re-
ports of the traders of all nationaiities
who are concerned in the Manchurian
trade. These methods in Manchuria
are causing protests to flow into the
foreign offices of every Eurol can cap
ital and also to the State Department
at Washington. What the outcome
will be remains to be seen.
From the japanese point of view,
Manchuria is but the thin edge of the
wedge which Japan is inserting in the
body of the Chinese Empire. From
their coign of vantage at the north
they hope to flood China with Japa-
nese goods, Japanese books and Japa-
nese ideas, not to mention Japanese
guns for revolutionists. For this reason
they are interposing objections to the
extension of the Chinese railway TO
Fakumen, a Chinese city, because it
might interfere with Japanese railroad
business. For this reason they are flood
ing China with teachers and spies
whose business it is to try to teach
the Chinese that Japan is the equal of
any nation on earth and that if China
will only follow it's lead, the despised
white barbarians will be driven from
Asia.