Evening star., 1922-01-24

illness and had to retire to his home.
John w. Davis. former ambassador at
of the Notwithstanding Union. pre-
sided.
obliged to leave behind large por--
tions of their property. abandoned
and unprotected. and their homes and
places of business have been destroy
ed. While the hardships and losses
thus caused the Japanese in the
Transbaikal and the Amur provinces
have been serious enough, more ex-
tensive damages are likely to follow
from the evacuation Of Vladivostok,
in which a larger unmber of Japanese
have always been resident and a
greater amount Of Japanese capital
invested.
Dimeulty Faced BY Japan.
There Is another difficulty by which
Japan is faced in proceeding to the
recall of her troops from the Maritime
province. Due to geographical pro-
districts around vladivostock and
Nikolsk is bound to affect the Sc
curity OF Korean frontier. In par
ticular. it is known that these dis
tricts have long been the base of
annr hsnds
with lawless elements in Russia, at
tempted in 1920 to invade Korea
through the Chinese territory of
Chientao. They set fire to the Jap
anese consulate at Hunchun and COM
and pillage. At the present time they
are under the effective control of
Japanese troops stationed in the
Maritime province, but they Will no
doubt renew the attempt to pene-
hA Aseof fo
BILE opportunity that may present
Having regard to those considera-
tions, the Japanese government have
felt bound to exercise precaution in
carrying out the s9ntsmpiated nrev;nss evaea
Should they take hasty action with
out adequate provision for the fu-
ture they would be delinquent in
their duty Of affording protection to
resident in the districts in question
and Of maintaining order and Sc
curity in Korea.
It should be made clear that no
part of the Maritime province is un-
der Japan's military occupation. Jap
the southern portion of that province.
but they have not set up any civil
or military administration to dis
place local authorities. Their activ-
fty is confined to measures of SELF
protection against the menace to
their country and nationals. They
are not in occupation Of those dis
trfcts any more than American or
other allied troops could be said to
have been In occupation Of the places
in which they were formerly sta
toned.
Anxious for stable Authority.
The Japanese government are anx-
ious to see an orderly and stable au-
thority speedily re-estabilshed in the
far eastern possessions Of Russia. 1t
was in this spirit, that they mani-
tested q keen interest In the patriotic
but ill-fated struggle Of Admiral Kol-
chalk. They have shown readiness to
lend their good Offices for prompting
groups in eastern Siberia. But they
have carefully refrained from sup
porting one faction against another.
It will be recalled. for instance. that
they withheld all assistance from
Gen. Rosanow against the revolutions
throw in January, 1920. They main
tained an attitude Of strict neutrality.
and refused to interfere in these
movements, which 1t would have been
quite easy for them to suppress il
they had so desired.
In relation to this policy Of nom
Intervention, 1t may be useful to re-
fer briefly to the past relations be-
tween the Japanese authorities and
~Ataman. Semenoff. which seems to
have been a source of popular mis-
giving and speculation. It will be re-
membered that the growing rap.
prochement between the Germans
STA in the early part of 1918 naturally
gave rise to apprehenstons in the al.
lied countries that considerable
quantity OF munitions supplied by
those countries and stored in Nladi-
yostok might be removed by the boil
sheviks to European Russia, for the
use Of the Germans. Ataman Sem
enoff was then In Siberia and was or
ganizing q movement to check such
bolshe evik activities and to preserve
order and stability In that region. It
was in this situation that Japan. as
we'll as some OF the allies. began to
give support to the Cossack chief.
Afters a few months such support by
the other powers was discontinued.
Rut the Japanese were reluctant to
abandon their friend, whose efforts in
the allied cause they had originally
encouraged: and they maintained for
acme time their connection with Alta
man Semenof. They had. however.
no intention whatever Of interfering
in the domestic affairs of Russia. and
when it was found that the assist
ance rendered to the Ataman was
likely to complicate the internal sit.
uation in Siberia they terminated al!
refations with him and no support of
anv. Kind has since been extended to
him by the japanese authorities.
Consider TroeD witAdrawaL
Tha japanese government is now
seriously considering plans which
would Justify them in carrying out
their decision Of the complete with
drawal Of Japanese troops from the
maritime province. with reasonable
nrecautton for the security Of Japan's .
residents and Of the Korean frontier
regions. It Is for this purpose that
|neEotiations were opened some time
kaxo at Dairen between the Japanese
REPRESENTATIVES and tho agents OF the
Chita government 49,.
Those. negotiations at Dairen are in
] no way intended to secure for Japan