Russia and Japan.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 426, 16 June 1904, Page 5

Russia and Japan.

It can surprise nobody that the sympathies of th 6 British people should be on the side of Japan in the present war. That gallant little nation has made more progress in 60 years than ' Russia has made in 600. Japan counted for as little as China in the middle of last centurv. All her manneis and customs; all her laws and literature, were of the middle ages. And now she has not only civilised herself, but become the CHAMPION OF CIVILISATION. Such a transformation, from obscnrity to eminence, from ineptitude to power, ignorance to enlightenment, ;<as never in so short a time been seen since the world began. Whi'e Japan stands for civilisation, Russia still stands for barbarism. She represents nothing but brute force. All her power is based on violence and bloodshed. She is a nation only in virtue of her barbaric conquest. On the one hand she has conquered without raising the least intelligent of the nations she has crushed ; on the other, she has degraded while she has overpowered the more enlightened. The GOTHS AND VANDALS, who submerged the effeminate Roman Empire were hardly more ferocious than the hordes which have swept over Manchuria, and which drove the poor unfortunate inhabitants by wholesale to perish in the Amoor. The Bear can no more change his character than tho leopard can - change his spots. " Scratch a Russian and you will find a Tartar." They are tartars yet, thnse Russians, the veneer of refinement with which the official classes have covered themselves notwithstanding. The barbarian comes out in the proclamations of Alexieff-—the legitimate successor of the general who made a wilderness in Poland and called it peace. This man SAVAGE WITH ANGEB at the early success of the Japanese, declared that Russia would exact a terrible revenge. Here we seethe incurable brutality of mere animal power —power without intellect. The threats of the defeated ruffian of the streets are precisely of a piece with those of the Czar's viceroy. These are impotent. JNbt impotent, however, are the murderous designs which the same savage has proclaimed against the unhappy Manchurians... Alexieff, the civilised nations must have read with horror, has issued six regulations—- " which all must tremblingly obey." Among these was the following :—" If officials or people treat with enmity the Russian army," an army of invasion, bear in mind—" the Russian Government will assuredly exterminate these persons, showing no mercy." Thus do we behold the spirit of Attila and Genseric—the ferocity of ' the fifth century revived in the twentieth. Be it remembered that Japan is ighting for her very existence. Manchuria absorbed by THE GREAT OCTOPUS. Korea would come next, and then in no long time Japan. The Japs know this—know that the only hope of escaping the common fate of Russia's victims is to check at a distance the career of the hateful conqueror. That they have taken their chances of victory now rather than await certain calamity hereafter shows their wisdom and foresight. Besides, they have a defeat to avenge. When Port Arthur was conceded to Japan as a result of the war with China, Russia stepped in to defraud the victor. Nay, with the countenance of France and Germany, she seized Port Arthur herself. Do you woDder at the exasperation of the Japs? But it is not on this account, but because she is resisting the extension of a i great and odious despotism, that Japan As entitled to the sympathies of all the freedom-loving people of the world.