New-York tribune., 1920-07-18

Of Ane arabic lands and promising
mineral deposits. In this g-ssS terri
tory all semblance of q ui,ii .s. national
government has disappeared. There is
every degree of political chaos. from
Rolshevik excess to brutal military
control. The people are uneducated In
political procedure. They are 80 scat
tered as to make uniform political
efforts difficult. Their minds have
been infamed with impossible ideals
of economic organization. They arc
existing in social order in which
the whole machinery Of commercial
and political life Is broken down.
Ordinary financial mechanism has dis
appeared. The currency Of the country
has become valueless. Barter has been
left as last resort Of disappearing
commerce.
On the western border Of this great
area the microbe Of Bolshevism has
inoculated the people, and the dis
ease has spread with greater or less
virulence eastward to the Pacific. Some
fear that there is a possibility that it
tack the masses of China, and even
have some effect on the comparatively
conservative social order in Japan.
Against that view is the land tenure
of both China and Japan, under which
The land holdings Of both countries are
generally divided into small individual
ownerships.
Conditions in Manchuria and Mon-
golia are mixture of those in China
and Siberia. Those districts are nom-
inally provinces of China, but the hand
of the Chinese central government has
but weakly administered affairs there
for long time. Russia at times ac-
quired some semblance of authority.
Railroad concessions were granted and
railroads built which carried with them
uncertain foreign police power. Japan
has assumed that she is entitled to
have what she calls "unique in
terest."
Allies Policy vacillating
The policy of the Allies in the face
of these vast social and political prob
blems has been uncertain, weak and
yacillating. Our own policy particu-
larly merits all those adjectives and
more. We sent an army of semi
political agents into Siberia and then
seemed to abandon them, neither
listening to their reports nor acting
on their suggestions. We sent mill
tary expedition too small to be effec-
tive, too uncertain in its objects to
permit it to lay down any definite
policy and then suddenly withdrew it
without the acquiescence Of our allies
and indeed without the knowledge of
our diplomatic representative. Our
entire Siberian policy is condemned by
our own representatives in the East
and its result is characterized by our
own citizens who have been on the
ground as one of complete failure.
The one intelligent, strong and ac-
tive political force in the East is Japan.
But here we find two-sided political
organization. There is in Japan. a we'll
developed, intelligent public opinion.
ambitious to have the nation occupy
place in the front rank of civilized ma
high moral purpose. This body of pub
lie opinion embraces a large majority
of The civil population. The great
business leaders. the men Of broad edu-
cation and international experience, the
majority Of the Diet and greater part
of the officials of the government, are
thoroughly convinced that the future
course of Japan should be peaceful and
that the nation should dream no dreams
of territorial expansion or Of wide po-
litical domination.
But in sense there are two govern
ments in Japan. The nation has al
'iiooe eho uu<aA nature VI Or. Jekyll
and Mr.. Hyde. There is a military
party made up of men who have been
trained in the military school and who
have in their hearts Prussian ideals.
They have ambitions for territorial con-
quest. In practice and action they have
the brutality of the old Prussian mill
tary order. When separated by long
distance from such control as Toxic
can exercise they are guilty Of afro
cious methods; and at best, the control
Of Tokio-that is, Of the civil arm of
the government-is uncertain. This
military. class is arrogant and am
bilious. at times it displays an indie
pendence. of action and contempt Of
control that are dangerous, and no one
sees that danger more clearly nor
feels greater apprehension regarding
it than do the Japanese themselves.
Population Gains 100000 Year
The nation of Japan, in which this
struggle of high spiritual and moral
purpose and Of liberal political aims
against military aristocracy is going
on, is in itself a social complex Of
seething adjustment and development.
The great central fact is population
increasing 100000 year, confined to
an extremely restricted arabic area.
now too small to produce food supply
sufficient for the growing population.
The country is in the midst of a
transition from an agricultural to an
industrial character. 1t must so develop
its industries that it can find mar
ket for its manufactured products
sufficiently large for it to exchange
those products for needed raw material
and food, or 1t must starve. 1t has
open to 1t only two solutions of the
problem Of to-morrow's food supply.
1t must either find an outlet for a
great mass of its surplus population
or it must develop it's industries and
find an outlet for their products. i'm
porting In return the food which it
must have.
Here in toughest outline are some
Of the high points of the situation in
the Far East. 1t will no longer do for
the United States to occupy position
of merely detached benevolent and crit
lcal interest. The Far Eastern prob
lem is world problem, and we shall
have our part in it's solution whether
we wish to or not. We have already
taken position which entails upon
US consequent responsibility. At the
present moment we are poorly equipped
to meet those responsibilities.
they are really moral responsibilities
rather than military. We have greater
need for building up our State Depart
ment than for strengthening our nayv.
We need to bring to our part in their
solution broad. sympathetic under
standing and to put away racial prei-
udlce and social misconception.
The problem demands From ma tho
attention Of uur h;ohac+ srs,;t.I II.