New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-09-28
JAPAN WAR TALK
MADE in GERMANY
Missionary Says MikadO'S
Subjects Laugh at Base
less Predictions.
THROWS LIGHT ON
Won SCHOEN REMARKS
Repudiated Interview Said by
Or. Quick to Have Marks
of GenuineneSS.

"As for Baron Won Schoeu's reported
interview, it bears marks that prove it
the product of some one recently from
Japan. 1t shows what indiscretions
and subterfuges mischievous diplomacy
sometimes falls into"
Light was thrown on a phase Of the
Won Schoen statement-which Won
Schoen has since denied-thst Japan
was aching for war with this country
in April. 1913, by DR.. Sidney L. GuIick,
for twenty-six years a missionary in
Japan, in the course of an interview
yesterday at the Yale Club. DR.. Gu
lick is IN authority on Japan, pro.
fessor in DOshisha University and a
special lecturer for the Imperial Uni
versity Of Kyoto.
Baron Won Schoen is reported TO
have said that in April, 1918, when the
California trouble came on, an obscene
phrase. insulting TO the United States,
had been written on the wall of the
American Embassy at Toxic. To my
mind that makes certain the charge
that Won Schoen uttered the words
which he has since repudiatcd. No
enc but 4 person recently in Japan and
in touch with intimate affairs there
could have known of the incident. The
story did not reach tie United States,
except in State Department circles, and
it was not known generally in Toxic.
What happened was that japanese
boy. infamed by talk Of the California
matter, wrote the insult on the en-,
baSsy wall. but another Japanese rubbed
it out within half an hour.
Baron Won Schoen's talk shows that
man may be in Japan for year or
more and be quite ignorant Of the real
situation. President Takata's state
ments are intrinsically more credible
than those attributed to Baron Won
Schoen. II is quite likely that there
have been clustered around the Ger
man Embassy in Japan those Japanese
who basked in German favor and re-
Aected the opinions Of the Germans in
the embassy. The recent disclosures
OF graft in the Japanese navy show
how intimate has been the relation Of
German manufacturers of war mate
rial with unprincipled Japanese.
But the way in which the Diet, in
both the upper and lower houses, has
cut down naval estimates and demand
ed searching investigations of the cul-
pritS, however high, and the way in
which the people as a whole have re-
acted on the disclosures show that they
are right Of heart. Attaches Of the
German Embassy in Toxic very likely
believe that throughout Japan there is
an intense hatred Of the American peo-
pie, and that the people believe that
war with the United States is newt.
able; nevertheless, it is not 80.
II believe that the 900 American mis-
sionaries living freely in all parts of
Japan-and more of them in any EN-
bassy or even in compounds-know far
more about what the Japanese people
feel and think than any ambassador
even can possibly know.
During the last eight years there
has been frequent assertion of an in
uvitable conflict between Japan and the
United States. The impression is cur
rent in Japan that these predictions
and arguments originated in Germany
and have been sent thence to America
and Japan. At first We all laughed at
them. But their persistence has be-
come a somewhat serious matter, espe.
cially as they have been taken up both
by certain Americans and by certain
Japanese.
"They are serious because they are
serving to ALLEVIATE our peoples. The
friction which undoubtedly exists be-
tween us to-day is utilized to foment
luminosity and suspicion. These make
plausible the arguments Of those who
talk war sRreS, and thereby seek TO
build up big nayies.
81 wish | could convince the Ameri-
can people that there is no danger
whatever of war between Japan and
the United States. For Japan il is
financially, economically and physically
impossible, and psychologically incred"
ible. She wants and needs our friend
ship, and she will do anything con
sistent with national dignity and honor
TO secure it,"
DR.. Gulick left Japan in July, 1913.
He intends to return. He says Japan
will return Kiao-Chau to China, mot
because of an altruistic motive, nut be-
cause she thinks it the wise thing.
For her part in this war, Dr.. Guliek
said, Japan will ask nothing but her
expenses.
A vote At the primaries Is the most
important duty Of self-respeeting citi-