The Columbus dispatch. (Columbus, Miss.) 19??-1922, 1921-10-18
JAPANESE HEGEMoNY IN THE FAR EAST

rs remarkably borne0ut by the pollcy OF Japal
) today in the Far East In the sixteenth century
when Portuguese vessels entered Japanese port:
= and Portuguese soldiers taught Japanese swords
men how to use firearms, there was an adventur.
Gus spirit aroused in the island empire. From
j the year 1850, for seventy years or more, until
the authorities forbade the construction of sea-
going vessels, Japanese corsairs were busy in
China waters and even in the Malay archipelago,
and Japanese adventures were to be found as far
west as India and south to the equator. Twenty
or more of them were in English employ at Am
boyna, when the English fort was captured in
1923 by the Dutch and the garrison massacred
brutality for which Oliver Cromwell thirty
years later, made the Dutch government pay a
handsome indemnify In Siam Japanese warriors
were called in to support one party in a civil war
that was raging; and to this day in the port Of
ITehoy in Siam there is a quarter known as the
Japanese quarter.
The Japanese under their great military leader,
Hideyoshi, the Napoleon of Japan, during this
period invaded Korea and spread fire and desola-
ton throughout the peninsula; disaster from
(which Korea never recovered. Chinese armies
and vessels Of war came to the help Of the Ko-
reans, and it was the superiority at this time of
the Chinese men-of-war that made the invasion
finally failure This defeat at sea was one of
the reasons for the decision of the Japanese au-
thorities to isolate themselves and discourage all
outside activities She has made good with her
navy today and therefore is not afraid to enter
on policy Of expansion.
The approaching visit of the King of Siam toI
Japan is therefore of considerable significance.
Siam is a land where the Buddhist pagoda is inI
constant evidence and "where the temple-besI
are caln,." In the twenty-one demands made
on China during the early part of the war the
right to protect Buddhist missions in China finds
a place Japan considers herself today the pro-
tector of Buddhism; and her press is insistent on
the need of Buddhist propaganda in nina, Siam
and elsewhere to counterfeit the spread of Christ
ianity, which is said to be undermining the
Buddhist faith. The Buddhist priests whom Japan
is sending out today are many of them high-cas5
men, whose aid is to be welcomed in the world
struggle against atheism and irreligion. Yet the
cynical use for political purposes of sincere
religious effort is graceless an dangerous policy
and Japanese offcialdom is pretty well agnostic
and Macchiavellian at present.
In the past thirty years Siam has shrunk con-
siderably, owing to the growth of French Indo-
China, which was occupying the valley of the
Mekong River. Here were discovered the wonder
full architectural remains of Angkor Wat huge I
temple, which had been lost sight of in the CEN
turies and become completely overgroWn. An eX-
petition set out from this country some years
ago to inspect and photograph these remains, and
The late Edmund Mitchell, who was one of the
party, described them in full in book which he
wrote at that time. By treaty signed in 1904
Siam coded eight thousand miles of territory
% France and three years later lost twelve thou
sand miles more. Indeed at one time it seemed
Is if the French would annex the whole kingdom,
)ut, owing to the firm stand made by Great
Britain, the Siamese were left masters in their
ountry. Meanwhile con siderable cession of ter
itory to the south, in the Malay peninsula, was
made to Great Britain At length these en-
roachments ceased, and the very capable SOW
reign King Chulaongkorn, who had accepted
oreign ways, was able to bring his state into
rood condition His son, who succeeded him ten :
ears ago. has continued the development with =
he advice and aid of American and European ex- $
erts. Agriculture and stock-raising are getting L
nto excellent shape, trade is increasing by leaps a
nd bounds, and the valuable teak forests are a
arefully looked after under the control of a c
British conservatory with an adequate staff of in c
pectors.
Siam was one of the countries from which
apan in the long ago received instructors in the :
buddhist faith. 1t will be interesting if in these
alter days Japan is able to return the favor by
elping Siam to renew her national vigor and
axe her proper place among the nations of the
rient and the civilized world. But hitherto the f.
eighboring nations of the East have not well A
omed the Japanese attempt at overlordship. New n
t the task, she is too assertive and arrogant, c
nd her Monroe Doctrine for Eastern Asia" h
pellS too much Japan. \
q, 10