Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-02-27
IDA GILBERT MYERS.


OUR FAR EASTERN ASSIGNMENT.
BY Felix Morley. New York: Dou-
bleday, Page & Co.
"HIS study of the East by Felix
h Morley y, rests at bottom .1o9 ON, on the h,
4 tomatically links the United
States with Japan, China, the
Philippines. This country is the great
storehouse from which the East will
draw in increasing volume. Trade,
that early means of contact drawing
communities together is in fact a
truly fundamental matter from which
spring many potent and delicate es-
sentials of international relationships.
And in these days commerce, trade,
has come to be an enormously COM
pick affair, inexhaustible in resource.
expert in method. often ruthless in
pursuit A thing fruitful on the one
hand for good understanding between
nations, on the other prolific in sus-
picion and distrust. Commerce will
more and more in the future make of
the Pacific a crowded waterway be
tween us and the Orient. A vital fac
tor In trade is that the trader shall
know his ground. And just now there
Is no ground more obscured by a
thousand elements of confusion than
is the East so obscured to the Ameri-
can man of business
So 1t seemed to Mr. Morley, news
paper man. with a leaning toward
economics and politics, with consider
able in these fields besides, that 1t
might be a practical and generally
helpful thing to do to project a very
simplified and basic view of the coun-
tries bordering the other side of the
Pacific with which we are bound to
have close dealings of various sorts
And In this book he attempts to rake
on the top, SO to speak. of the exist
ing chaos in the East for the benefit
of the people of this country.
A Simplified view--that was the pur-
pose of whose fulfillment this book is
evidence. A little book that can be
read at single sitting. Out of it's
reading one gets clean bodied, large
featured setting forth of the essen
tials of Japan, of China. of the Phil
ippines. Take Japan, for instance
Here it stands. close by, behaving as
all peoples behave under like stimula-
ton. Expansion? Yes, the economic
urge compelled Japan to reach out.
Much may be said about this in
method and effect, but here is the
bone-bare fact. Another prime fea-
ture of Japan was it's change within
20 years from a feudal state to a rep
resentative government. The next
long stride in this study reaches the
World War, when Japan under the
urge of national ambition committed
some serious diplomatic follies. Then.
next, the conference at Washington,
out of which Japan emerged secure
In its mind and turned definitely. il
appears. toward the new methods of
Toly
unspeakable confusion. one wrought
by loosely bound localities, but wrought
much more clearly by the penetration
OF business, trade, into the country
under the methods of the pirate and
the marauder. Mr.. Morley drags to-.
the surface of this chaotic China an
age-old civilization. veneration of an
cfent customs. religious unity, these
to be the common foundation for the
growth of great republic, to whose
growth the white man should con-
tribute by sympathetic understanding
and fair dealings. The Philippines
here is another conclusion. though it
is reached by the business route.
Here. however, Felix Morley is openly
critical of the delay OF this country
In living up to its promise of Philip
pine independence. 1t seems to me
that Morley and other critics in this
matter are questioning the good faith
OF the Nation in respect to the Philip
pines. though they lodge their com
plants in this governor general or
that one. The United. States is going
to give the Philippines back. or
course 1T is. The delay is merely a
matter of Judgment as to the best
time to do this. Why not look at it
from that point? Well, the critic is
useful agency now and then. But
that Is another story. The point here
Is that Felix Morley has with compe-
tence and skill and authority drawn
off much Of the confusion Of the Far
East in this compact story. one OF
whose points of high merit is that it
is as readable as it is useful in pur-
pose and substantially informing In
content.
MORE PORTS MORE HAPPY
PLACES. BY Cornelia Stratton
Parker, author of AN American
Idyl." etc, Illustrated from photo
graphs. New York: Boni & Live
right
HERE they are off again, this
Parker family--mother, daughter
and two sons-to follow, seemingly,
wheresoever fancy leads round and
about Europe. Climbing Swiss