The Hawaiian gazette., 1916-12-12
THE ADVERTISERS ssElnIlvElElKlY
s.lJapa,, In the China Shop

- =
FTHERE is remarkably clear cut article in the
~ htDeGetfber "Bserybody's Magazine" under
the above title by Q. K. Davis, who has travelled
and observed much in the Orient, and has the fac
ulty of relating what he has seen, heard and OBJ
served, in vigorous English ....'. -. j.
In substance the article is to the effect that there
is much loose and foolish talk on both sides of the
Pacific, about war that neither nation wants war
that there is no necessity for war; that the ques-
lions raised in California are irritating to Japan,
but are being ghHed by that or,atiot-at least for
the present; but says Mr. Davis:
The road to war with Japan lies through Chine.
Let the people of the United States interfere with
the development of japan plans in China; let them
undertake to block the deliberately conceived and
carefully built.up scheme for the establishment of
Japanese dominion over the people and the Territory
Of China When they have done that the next move
may very well be one Of vigorous preparation for de-
Tense.
Mr. Davis thereupon proceeds to argue we'll nigh to
demonstration, that, not only y Japan determined to
dominate China but that self preservation eompels
her to do The following is the substance Of his
reasoning ~
wants And ii is China that Japan must hvet for it
is China which will give Japan the outlet she needs
We are accustomed to think that it is merely amb
tion-and chiefly military ambitiOn-that is driving
Japan
cesty hard and insistent which knows relief but
One-it is the imperative press Of population which
What does the Japanese Government Wanti China
whyi Because China and China alone furnish
the outlet which japan imPeratively needs
The writer thereupon sets forth that the people
Of Japan number ffty-three million; that the total
area of Japan is only $4,000 square miles-about
the area of the State of Montana-only one sixth
of which is arabic; and that the population is in
creasing by 100000 each year.
L. fortk kt,okk ,a.r -
has barred out the Japanese THAT neither the fro
zen north nor the tropical south offer any adequate
room for expansion and that by sheer force of ne
cessty for lack Of any other place to go, the Jap
anese must move into China or starye i
However much the Japanese may want peace
and oppose war, they cannot sit still and be starv-
ed to death into inefficiency.
War is dreadful but starvation is worse
, Through war there is hope. In starvation there
is none
Mr. Davis states that the Japanese authorities
continuously, even grotesquely deny that they
have designs upon China
Even when they were recently invading the
ereignty of China and mpairing her integrity and rob-
bling her of her independence the Japanese stol
idly asserting that they doing of those
things, he says.
Marquis Okuma himself was cabling to the United
States from Toxic his formal assurances that Japan
not doing the very thing that Minister Hioki,
complish.
Mr. Davis states, however, that Marquis Oku,
ma, then head of the government, discussed this
economic problem, and Japan's relation to China
in connection with it, with the writer, with the ut
most ,frankness, developing a line of argument
which must appeal to every American who takes
the trouble to look at all into the Far Eastern
question"
| The interview with Okuma SO unqualified,
supports the policy of dominating China, which
Mr. Davis states is now in course of execution, b,
Japan, that it appears to The Advertiser to be ONT
OF the most important documents of the year; es
pecially in view Of the fact that the United States
government has announced that it proposes to in
sist on the maintenance of the Open Door.
SO important is the Okuma statement, in ou
opinion, that reproduced in full on anothe
page Of today's issue.
Every one who wants to know what is going OF
| in China, and why, should read the Okuma inter
| view.
| AS we understand it, the ones protesting agains