The New York herald., 1921-12-01
ny EDWIN C. HILL.

Special Despatch to THE New York HERALD.
New York Herald Bureau,
Washington. ID. c., Nov. 80.
Corks bobbing in the stream of con-
ference gossip. In what special ways
do the Japanese differ from their Mon
golian friends across the Yellow Sea?
"Jonkheer." drink or title? Hiram
Johnson has his eye to the keyhole.
What would Give or Warren Hastings
think Of the Right Hon. V. S. Srinivasi
Sastri. Hindu statesman? Table talk
while the candles CLEAN softly in the
embassies and enrich the ruby radiance
of good burgundy.
Many persons have trouble telling
Japanese and shorthaired Chinese apart.
Yet a little familiarity with these
wholly different peoples shows that they
differ as Swedes differ from Italians,
say. Kung-fu TIE, whom we barbarians
call Confucius, did not know for all his
wisdom where the Chinese came from
and when. They have an old, old saying
that the first man was a Chinaman.
The Japanese came probably from
northeastern Asia, from the region Of the
Manchus. You will note that they are
doing their best nowadays to recover
the old homestead.
Break little way through the exas-
perating inscrutabllity of either people
and you get flashes of their distaste for
one another. If you believe the Jap
anese you must believe that the Chinese
are great liars. The Dai Nippon, "Peo-
pie of Nippon" as they call themselves,
maintain almost angrily that report
ISLANDERS them when 1t says they are so
tricky that they employ Chinese man.
ayers for their own banks. They tell
you almost appealingly that truth tell
ing Is. perhaps. the cardinal virtue of
the Japanese. You will find plenty OF
white men more or less familiar with
the East as divided over this matter as
are the principals themselves.
Rather more than a century and a
half ago a young bookkeeper for the
John Company showed the British in
India that he knew something about
soldering. This was Robert Give, after
ward Lord Give. His usual argument
with the people of the country was
grapeshot and canister. He would open
his eyes in amazement to see the Right
Hon. v. S. Srinivasi Sastri elbow to
elbow with Balfour of old England in
representing the veal of the empire.
=,
what later than Give. and who had no
tonished at his moderation, would think
probably that Englishmen have gone
crazy.
Sastri is possibly the most picturesque
figure of the conference as it sits in
complete session. There is little color
in this notable assemblage anyway-not
enough to pleasure eyes weary OF the
eternal drabness of the clothes that
tyrannical women make men wear. The
Hindu statesman, n real prop of the
empire in these explosive days, COM
mands the gaze He wears precisely
folded turban of some soft stuff that is
spotlessly white His coat is the surtout
of statesmen the world over, from Bonn
bay to Boston. a long black frock His
black trousers, rather loosely fitting.
shape down to black spats and patent
leather shoes.
You study Sastri, noting that ne is
still young, that he is dark skinned, Of
course, though no darker than Kato or
the extremely plump Tokugawa: that
he has forehead broad and high that
his eyes are large, brown and very
frank, and ponder a little about the
trend of certain affairs in this world.
The trend is more and more toward the
political emancipation of races once
ignored and even despised. See what
the British are doing in Egypt and India.
Note what we are doing in the Philip
pines. The Dutch, one hears, are slow
est of all peoples to confide SELF govern
ment to a subject race.
There are Britishers here who will