New-York tribune., 1921-11-13
The Far East and the Pacific
Areas Of Possible Conflict
China, Japan and the Western Ocean
Present Intricate Problems
for Conference

received from her leasehoIder., con-
cessionaires and political guarantors,
the United States up to that time ex-
cepted,
Yet DR.. Reid has been, too long in
China not to perceive the defects in
China's claim to be considered a real
nation. The average Chinaman, he
says, is, "a pacifst and a passiyst.n
No such thing exists in China as
patriotism in the Western or the Jap
anese sense. The present Peking gov
ernment is military dictatorship.
China Is inert and divided at the very
time when q world conference has been
called to consider the practicability OF
severing her bonds and treating her
as if she were really a nation. This
book is a real contribution to an under
standing Of China's unfortunate and
periIous role at Washington.
Mr. Sydney Greenbie's "The Pacific
Triangle" like his earlier Japan
Real and Imaginary" is the record of
an American travellers observations in
the Far East, including the many ISL
ands OF the Pacific. 1t is a personal
narrative rather than a political study
But it contains many striking observa-
tions on the psychology and tempera-
ment of the Pacific peoples. Mr.. Green
bic draws a sharp distinction between
the japanese government. which is
still medieval in spirit and narrowly
aristocratic, and the people, who are
Just feeling the first strivings of West
ern democratic ideas. He makes light
of the stock argument that Japan
needs room for her surplus popu-
lation. He says that the Japanese dc
not want to emigrate-either to Corea
Manchuria and Siberia. or to Formosa
and the Philippines. The only spots
to attract them are those in which
they can make money easily--like
Hawaii and California.
The racial exclusion issue in Japan,
he thinks, is mere window dressing
The Japanese are themselves rigid race
exclusionists and restricters of i'm
migration. Were Japan to extend TO
the masses greater freedom says
Mr.. Greenbie. "there would be plenty
Of work at home" But "the govern
ment is rooted in antiquated notions
is vicious in many of its aspects and
il opposed to even the most conserva-
tive developments of Western coun-
tries. The government refuses to
recognize the social forces that are at
work in Japan"
Mr. Greenbie has theory all his
own about the working out of the
Pacific problem. 1t is, in brief, the
characterization of Japan. He writes /:
"The vulgar acquisition of wealth;
the vulgar acquisition of political
prestige in the world; the vulgar ap-
peal for equality which no man or
nation with true dignity and self
respect would mouth to the extent
that Japanese officialdom has mouthed
it; the vulgar wearing of its sensitive
ness on it's s.eeve--it is these with
which bureaucratic Japan is prcoc-
cupied. While at home every effort
on the part of japanese to secure
manhood suffrage, to arise to the Dig
nifty of true men, of which the masses
are as capable d s any race on earth,
| is discouraged. On the one hand,
pleading, in mendicant fashion, for
racial equality abroad; on the other,
refusal to give the people at home
racial equality. SO that the
problem of Japan and the world is
largely political problem which she
must face at home. Raising the
standard of living; Increasing the
economic welfare of the masses; ex-
tending the rights of the people who
are clamoging for it in sections, not
orly to the intelligent elements but
down to the very eta; cleansing the
social pores of the empire-these
will in themselves automatically solve
the problem for the world. The people
don't want conquest. They are not
aggressive. But the misguided lead
ers--there's the rub"
In "What japan Wants" Professor
Yoshi S. Kuuo, of the University Of
California, states what he concelves te
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