Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-04-16

evidence to show that Bengal aud the
Punjab, the two provinces in which Eng
/ lish prestige is supposed TO have been
most firmly established, are at heart al
most as badly disaffeeted rs Ireland. In
Bengal there have been assasslnations of
| officials by natives who took this desper-
ate method of expressing their resentment,
and who accepted the resultant martyr
dom with great stoosm.
Plenty of other evidence can be found
that in India and in other parts of Asia the
natives are opposed to rule and cxpoita-
tion by Europeans. That evidence cannot
be set forth in detail here. Neither can the
question be discussed whether this ex-
ploitation and rule is iustiliable. The sig
nificant question is whether the western
nations can get away with it.
WESTERN WORLD WEAKENED.
IL must be remembered that all of the
western nations except the United States,
have been greatly weakened by the world
war while Asia took no considerable part
in that war and has not been weakened.
1t must also be realized that Asia has
nearly "a billion people. In India alone
there are $4,000, 900 people. The mill
tary forces which England has there, are
but n handful, and threc-fourths of these
troops are themselves Asatics, whose
loyalty would be doubtful IN case OF war
on racial lines.
The late war seems to have shown con-
clusively that in the long run the side
wins which can put the most soldiers into
the field. When it comes TO numbers,
Asia has tremendous advantage over
Europe.
For thousand years Asiatics overran
Al
nov. Turks. Huns Mongols, came in
wave after wave The Aslatics showed
that they had great fighting powers, and
great powers OF organization and leader
ship Then the tide turned. For several
centuries now the western nations have
been ovcrrunning Asia May not the
pendulum swing back? In word, are we
not, IN disrcgarding the Asiatic point Of
view. laying the ground work for another
great war?
What renders the Asiatics comparative
" helpless IS that they lack the industrial
and military organization of the western
nations But we are doing everything IN
our power TO teach them that In one
Asiatic nation, Japan, we have supremacy
succeeded Japan has demonstrated the
fact that an Asatic nation, when It puts
its ASIatIG mind to IL, can learn all he
tricks OF our lnunStflai ana lnl1thfN ClNit- Z
ization IN one generation. Japan WAS q
medieval nation half a century ago. Now
IT is a modern one IN every sense Of the /
word And Japan has shown not only /
that an Asiatic nation can learn the tricks +
of industrialism in very short time. but /
that il can apply them IN the same way We +
do. Already Japan IS developing /
China and Korea in exactly the same way /
that the western nations have been I
developing Asia in general. And when /
the United States and Great Britain pro /
test against this process, on the ground /
{ hat it is keeping the western nations out +
Of share III the said development, Japan /
replies in a series Of diplomatic gestures /
which all strongly resemble the placing Of I
a japanese thumb to a Japanese nose.
Japan, then, may be taken as an cx-
ample of what Aslatics can do when they
have really learned the tricks OF industrial
md military methods which the western
nations are diligently teaching them by
example
DOES EXPLOITATION PAY?
Our own most direct share in the Asian