The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-06-01

quite an addition to your already
large army" The general laughed
as he replied:
Il should not such a.
plan and il it IS not in accordance
With our scheme for bringing about
the independence of Korea under
japanese protection. the Korean
soldiers might do we'll enough in the
rear. and we could use them for the
heaNy work Of our military operations
as transports and laborers. We would
not dare put them at the front
How about the charges that Your
soldiers are depressing the people
and killing them without cause?"
There is no truth in such state
ments.' said Gen. Hasegawa. we
have to be severe in our treatment
of the rebels in order 10 maintain
peace and keep the unruly element
in check. Warts a serious matter.
and such conditions have TO be han
died in a serious way. Otherwise We
could do nothing With the country
We wipe out the insurgents when they
arr found. and it may be that when
we ere misinformed as to who are
ms Tgents some innocent men may
be illed. At present We are using
m& Koreans in our police force,
anC the p~rO-Japanese Koreans are
aiding us to put down the rebellion"
Us is true hat a band of your
soldiers recently killed twenty such
Koreans, supposing them insurgents?"
Il know the case to which you re-
fer" said Gen. HasegaWa. we are
not yet sure whether those people
were insurgents or not. The killing
occurred in a part of the country
there were bands of rebels, one
of which contained about thirty-flve.
Our rOOps were on the track Of that
band and had been informed that
it was in q certain inn. The officer
in command caught one mar oming
out and he had papers on him show
ing hat he was an insurgent. He
then ordered those within the building
to come out or he would shoot. They
did not reply and he commanded his
soldiers to fire. Upon going in later
twenty were found dead. We still
believe that they were largely insur-
gents. They certainly should have
answered when the soldiers ordered
them out
rs not Korea a difficult land to
police?"
Yes, exceedingly SO. The country
is covered with mountains. There
are no roads whatsoever over which
troops can be marched. The only
routes from one place to another are
bride paths, which become streams
and rivers whenever it rains. There
are practically no bridges and the
is so poor that it is difficult
to provision the troops except by car
rying food everywhere with US. An
dEher annoyance to which the men
are subjected is the universal pres
ence of Vermin, owing to the personal
u~ncleanliness of the people. There
are lice and bugs of all kinds, and it
is almost impossible for the troops to
keep themselves free from them
I here asked the general as to the
of his troops. He replied that
It was excellent and that the troops
not had the feVers. d~ysentery
and smallpox, so common among the
Koreans. He said the men were we'll
Jared for, and l complimented him
On the healthful arrangements OF his
new barracks, saying that Japan was
aading the world in matters of mill
airy sanitation, and that the low
rate from disease among the
Japanese troops in Manchuria had
)een less than that of any great war
n the past. The general acknoWl-
that this was true and signif-
:antly added:
we Japanese do not believe that
soldier should die in his bed
I the preached the subject of
Russia, asking the general whether
Re thought there would be another
var later on and whether he 0
,uild Notifications along the northern
orders Of Korea. He replied that
le would not and that such fOrtinCa-
ions on the frontier would be con-
rary to the treaties etWee the two
ountries. AS to another struggle
fifth Russia, he would not ansWer
aying that he hoped there would
e peace betWeen the two nations
rom now on. He said Japan did not
ant trouble with any one, but that
war came she would have to do
she could.
I'VE must fight just whenever our
onor is at stake. There are OcCa-
ions when to live without fighting
-ould be to suffer more than TO die
I then asked, What about the
barge that you are preparing to
ght American" .
To this the general semi-facetiously
aplied: