New-York tribune., 1917-07-23

| don't know. But | subscribe 70
clipping agency which brings me every
clipping on the Far East that appears
in the American press. And what Mr..
Kinnosuke says in The Tribune, let
US say, in that sprightly and Joshing
style Tribune readers know so well,
find Mr.. Kawakami saying IN The
Seattle Post-Intelligencer," perhaps, or
in his own japanese paper in San Fran
cisco, and | find Dr. lyenaga saying II
in his University Of Chicago puncit
style later on in the bulletins OF the
East and West Bureau.
All of these writers have recently,
in their several styles, chosen the
same time to tell US how Japan abso-
lutely demands "paramountcy" in
China. They have chided President
Wilson rather grievously for letting
life-sized note 20 from Washington to
Peking without stop for censorship
at Toxic. One of them, newcomer,
Mr. Kazan Kayahira, was so harsh TO
tie President in the columns Of rsth-
er partisan contemporary that looked
up what his countrymen thought Of
him. And found this phrase in r-f-
erence to him in DR.. lyenaga's little
book, Japan's Real Friendship for
America: "I have no sympathy Whist
ever for the rabid views OF this jingo-
ist writer" So | suppose that puts
Mr. Kayahira just little outside the
pale.
News from Japan will probably never
again be so deliberately misleading as
in the notorious episode Of the ulti-
matum to China, but in this field, too,
Americans should, though in no spirit
of i'll feeling against Japan, be con-
stantly on their guard.
Toxic Denied True Story
At that time, turning bland face
toward the rest of the world and ex-
planning in the most specific terms
1 that nothing of any consequence was
going forward, japan was urging terms
of humiliation on China that stopped
barely short Of national independence.
! By a curious coincidence the two prin
cpal correspondents in Peking--the
| representatives. of The Associated Press
and "The London Times"-were in To-
kio. The big news in China came to
their substitutes in an absolutely re-
| liable form. In both cases their sub
stitutes wired it promptly. In both
cases, in New York and in London, the
Japanese denied II so vigorously and so
plausibly that these unhappy stopgaps
| got nothing but severe reprimand for
one of the biggest news beats Of the
war And meanwhile the story actu-
ally hung fire for almost five crucial
weeks, while the Chinese Republic
fought for its life. Them after The
| Associated Press correspondent had
/ been so far the man as to throw up
his job in disgust, the story came out;
and it was in every important detail
| the story which the japanese govern
ment had denied and suppressed and
6iscredited at the beginning.
II you read the Japanese press at
| tentively to-day you will see that Jap
snase newspaper men and many leading
! politicians have ever since regarded
that amazing coup as very unfortu-
nate mistake. The Japanese publicity
/ groups in this country aided and
abetted the official version, neverthe-
| less; and they did so because it is an
i almost irresistible deduction from their
situation that they were not free
agents in the matter. They are not
| free agents now; the Japanese govern
ment is not that kind of government
| OF course, they do not represent IL Of
! fcially. Even the great Koksai Shim-
| bun, Japan's heavily subsidized tele-
graph news agency, which Is her main
| artery of news and views to the world
outside, is "semi-officisl." Meanwhile
an arrangement with the Koksai sews
up Reuters independence, and rigid
censorship and watchfllness keeps the
American correspondent we'll within
the entsngling courtesies Of the situa-
| tion.
| In short, it is Japan's end and aim
| to give the world, most especially
America, Japanese viewpoint Of what
| happens in the Far East to-day. We
are an adult nation, thank you, how
ever, with a mind OF our own. And it
is about tins we gave a piece of it to
some of our over-anxious japanese
publicity scribes.