The Hawaiian gazette., 1915-10-26

his new post, if at all. He has just
been appointed minister to the United
States, succeeding Minister Kai Flu
There probably is CONSERVATION at
'olumbia University these days, and Il
ONES from the habit of Yuan Shin .kai,
| president of China, in making ministers
Of young men just out of college. For
DR.. V. K. Wellington KoO will have to
be addressed - as "Mr. Minister or
something OF, that sort, when he re
turns to his alma mater, and be given
| seat amOng the notabIes at the din
ners, and be sought after by the regu.
| lar newspaper men and the women re-
porters who write personal impressions
of the famous along their "My Visit.
to the Emperor" style. 1t il
Doctor Koo is Columbia 8 infant
prodigy. Associated Press dispatches
Yesterday brought the word that he
would succeed Kai Flu Shah, recalled,
IS minister Of the republic Of China
70 the American republic. Doctor Koo
is twenty. nine years old
Likened To Napoleon Il
Friends of Napoleon who found him
| commander of the Army of Italy at
twenty-six would know how to sympa-
'hize with Doctor Koo $ old mates at
the university. They perhaps are only
fairly started on the uphill climb; they
IRE known to the heads of the firms as
Young men who will bear responsible
tty-some day. they have married and
i've in unpretentlOus homes in the su-t
Ourbs or in sizable apartments uptown
and they will wake up this morning
to find their classmate the accredited
representative the largest republic
in the world to the greatest republic
in the world, aYoung.old man of state
craft, a fashioner of national politics
and perhaps Spf national destinies as.
well-ahd all"this at twenty nine.
1t was startling enough when Doctor
Koo passed through here in the steamer
Persia August % to find that a twenty
nine.year-Old man was a minister of
any kind at all, but it is more startling
to find him filing the position in which
that prince and master of statecraft
[and everything else laudatory that one
may call a diplomacy WI Ting Fung,
shone so brightly few years ago.
Not Liked By Japan
Before being assigned to Mexico, the
loctOr was English secretary to Presi.
dent Yuan and counselor to the Chi
nese department Of foreign affairs. He
was notably unacceptable to Japan, for
in the recent negotiations over the ia
panese demands, he was not permitted
~ Japan to act as advisor to the Chi
nese ministry But he evidently i,
| persona grata to President Yuan.
Doctor KoO should make a good dip
| IOmat, if his ability to be charmingly
silent in all languages is any criterion
A reporter will find himself passing an
exceedingly pleasant half hour with
him-and he will go away with no
| news; he will ponder Tegretfully on
what the doctor did not say; he will
wonder why he did not observe the non
loquaciousness at the time.
And this is without ;Offense. Some
+ diplomats have not this ability to dis
arm questions almost before they are
ask ed, to refuse to answer so that the
interviewer is not aware of the refusal
to ask questions in turn so skillfulIy
! that the reporter finds himself being
interviewed. No; some diplomats lack
these gifts, but Doctor Koo has them
Doesn't Look His Age
Glad in linen, wearing a white pith
helmet, carrying a jaunty walking stick,
Doctor Koo would not have impressed
the casual Honolulan as anything more
than well bred young Chinese travel
err, Had a group photograph been TAX
en- of the KoO party, composed largely
of young students, the minister could
not have been pointed out by the most
astute person who did not know him.
He would have been confused with any
of his charges. He hardly shows even
his twenty-nine years.
His gaze is direct but curiously spec
ulative, 1t is disconeerting TO West
erner. it is frank enough, but behind
it there is something that the Occident
al cannot penetrate, He may think it
is merely half absorbed interest in the
conversation, or a slow sizing-up of the
speaker, or perhaps a sort of pity for
the American reporter who is trying t"
persuade the doctor to say something
the doctor does not wish to say-and
which the doctor will not say.
Whatever of these it is, it undeni
ably is OBJECTIONABLE TO one of the
Western world. Diplomats of Wash
ington who think to presume on Doe
tor Koo S youth-if q diplomat would
do such a thing-should take an al
vanced course III reading the Celestial
mind when the Celestial mind does not
choose that it should be. read.
Impassive? Exceedingly 50
The impassivity, yovcalled, of any
other Oriental j. child's play at i'm
passiVity as possessed by Doctor Koo
| Frnm Suny IN EladiVnSfdk tba 0riant
ais shouIL 20 to learn of the Chinese
n The minister has the gravity Of the
Chinese, lie smiles, hut it would l.,
difficult to think of him as laughinL
very heartily. With his country men h,