The San Francisco call., 1908-08-23
CHINESE BOYCOTT
is FELT IN JAPAN
Liner Brings Evidence OF the
Effectiveness of Ban on
Island Empire
Business Declared at StandstilI
and Government Has No
Money to Retaliate

If the Celestial who conceived the
punish Japan for its part in the Tatsu
Maru incident could have seen the
Japanese liner Hongkong Maru when
that yachtlike steamship arrived here
Friday from the orient he would
have hugged himself with satisfaction.
AS an outward and visible sign of what
China is doing to Japan in a CONNER
cial way the Hongkong Maru was good
as a written acknowledgment signed
by the mikado himself. OF cargo the
iner did not have enough for ballast,
and to keep the ship in good trim had
taken 500 tons of extra coal at Naga-
saki.
OF Chinese passengers the Hongkong
Maru brought only two Eight took
passage at Shanghai, but the boycott
authorities heard about it, and before
the steamer sailed six of the Celestial
passengers were persuaded by the COM
mercial guilds to go ashore and wait
for an American liner. The two Chinese
that did travel on the Hongxong were
allowed to do so for the reason that a
later steamer would have landed them
here after the expiration of their reg
istration certificates, and they would
have had difficulty in landing.
BOYCOTT is EFFECTIVE
According to passengers on the Hong
kong Maru the boycott is hourishipg,
and the Japanese loss has reached a
figure beside which the Tatsu Maru in
demnity looks like carfare. A num-
ber of Japanese steamship companies
are said to be on the verge of bank
ruptcy, Business in Japan is practically
at a standstill. The people are groan-
ing under the burden of taxation and
the government is calling for sugges-
tions of methods by which the boycott
may be broken or circumvented.
According to one passenger, Japan re-
Gently sent to China a squad of picked
newspapermen to explain to the editors
of the most prominent Chinese journals
how much Japan really loved China.
The Chinese editors received the Wis
itors eourteously, thanked them for
their expressions of esteem and went
on boosting the boycott.
When an appeal was issued to the
world for contributions to aid the VIC
Tins of floods in China, Japan seized
what looked like a good opportunity to
win Chinese good will and made hand
some contributions to the relief fund.
These contributions, according to pas
sengers on the HonGkong Maru, were
returned with thanks, and the boycott
machinery given a little wider scope.
BUSINESS AT STANDSTILL
George f. Brindley, who, with his
wife and daughter, returned from Japan
on the Hongkong Maru, says that he
came away because business in Japan
was at a standstill. Living in Japan,
he says, is now as expensive as living
in New York. Brindley, whose wife is
a daughter of Eli L. Shepperd of this
city, lived in Japan nearly all his boy
hood days and is graduate of the
Tokyo university. His father laid out
the first plans for Japan's new navy,
and when Brindley returned to Japan
two years ago it was with the inten-
tion of remaining there permanently.
He loved the island kingdom and its
people.
But found everything changed, .
he said. 1T took two years to do it,
but every illusion l ever had about
Japan has been dispelled, and / want no
more of 1t. Japan's rise was sudden,
and it was too much for Japan. 1t has
made the country delirious, but annoy
ance to the rest of the world as the
result of that delirium will be limited.
for the very good reason that Japan
has no money"