The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-08-20
OFFICER
 CALLS JAPAN'S ACT
 ONE OF COWARDICE

That Japan's ultimatuna to the Ger man Kaiser IS an act of cowardice is the opinion of A. E. PiorI<owski, mapor in the Imperial German army and former agent for the Krupps in America In the New York Tribune, he writes:
 Japan has sent her ultfmatum to the Kaiser. The text of the u1timatum is very simple. Translated into French it would be, sote-to que je my mettel'
 Japan had a grievance against Germany. She sbided her time, and when it came to pass that Germany was surrounded by enemies. had to face them in front and to the right and left, Japan bounced on her back and attacked her where she was with out defence. Clever, wasn't it?
 And Japan's friendship for Eng, land served as a pretext. We wonder how proud Old England feels. about her contemptible little ally. She will probably shrug her shoulders and take what part little Nippon will off, fer her of the pfunder.
 Let us look back a little closer at the Japanese. have been in the Far East several times on important mis- sions and have lived there and studied them and their character. While be- fore their victories over the Chinese
 
 touchy. since then they have lifted their heads considerably. In the Boxer uprising they had marched side by side with European soldiers toward Picking, had compared their own naili- tary capacities with those of the Euro peans. and had lost a good deal of the awe for them.
 ssThe Russian war broke out four years later, and as conditions were in JapAn's favor and against Russia, the Japanese won. They were carefully prepared for the campaign in Man churia; the Russians, blinded by the idea that little Japan would never dare, were not. The Japanese knew every square foot of ground on which they had, in 1896. fought the Chinese. The Russians were strangers. The Japanese were near their own coun- try, near their military bases and re- sources, the Russians far away from theirs.
 4 tpThe Japanese were enthusiastic in the idea that for the first time they were measuring their military capac- ity against that of a European power They were attacking, and Russia was on the defensive. Yet the Japanese had anticipated. They had hoped to take Port Arthur in April, 1904, but in spite of enormous losses only got it on January 1, 1905. They had hoped to sl1rr ound the Russian army as the Germans surrounded the French at Sedan, but they succeeded only in driving them further and further back.
 ssAfter peace mad been made they sent thousands of agents into China, thinking China ought to receive them with open arms. They had shown China how to treat the intruders from Europe Why should not China, say: Here are my people. my treasures, my empire; you who know how to teach my men to get rid of those troublesome Europ peans s-a n d. Japan would graciously take the people and the treasure and the empire with the slogan, Asia for the Asiatics', and make them all Japanese.
 ssBut wise old China knew her Jap anese then. and there was no friend- ship for and no confidence in them. So China kept her own counsel and postpone the realization of her fond est drean1-the ruling of China and with China. the Pacific Ocean. The Oriental is an expert in Watchful waiting. He is full of imagination he dreams of world power won by his oceans and the countries of the white man to his Emperor This Is the yell low peril ag the Kaiser has named 1t. Will the dream ever come true?
 The Japanese have not the slight est feeling in favor of the Western people. They despfse us. They think that all the sciences and arts of civ ilizatfon which we have developed in centuries came to their wonderful minds in less than fifty years, and they wholly forget that they obtained all of it ready made from us.
 :. We adopt and then we adapt and so we grow adept, said witty Jap anese to me. Their belief that they are superior to us is unlimited, and therefore they hold us in contempt. There are perhaps a few instances when they have to adnit-to. them selves-that we are superior. Then they hate us.''