CHINA AND JAPAN.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1738, 1 May 1913, Page 6

CHINA AND JAPAN.

A NEW ENTENTE. MISSION OF DR. SUN YAT-SEN. POSSIBLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE FAR EAST. ("Daily News" Correspondent.) Shanghai, March 2. The absorbing subject of interest ill the Far East -to-iiay is Dr. Sun Yat-Sen's visit to Japan. , Indeed, nothing more fraught with great possibilities lor -the future has happened 6ince China was a Republic. Dr. Hun is making an almost royal progress through Japan. Special trains are put at his disposal, enthusiastic crowds await his arrival at every town, and his days are an unending round, of rcceptinns ana coni'orouccs with bankers, Board of Trade oilicials, and Ministers,

With the people of Japan Dr. Sun'i popularity is easily. explained. Among them he planned much of that hidden movement which culminated in a mighty revolution, anil to them ho stands as an omblem 'of those democratic ideals to which tho Japanese nation is itself si niggling against, the barriers of bureaucracy and feudalism. But some deeper reason must bo sought for tint reudiness el' Dr. Sun's reception with the governing classes of Tokio. A Hint from Tokio, in point of fact, there is ground lor believing that when first tho visit was mentioned, Dr. Sun received a plain hint from Tokio that his presence was not desired, The bureaucrats feared the probablo effect of a visit from 'the, champion of democracy upon the mob and the Constitutionalists of the House of RcpresenI tatives. AU ol' a sudden, however, tins veto was withdrawn, and Dr. Sun's visit has not only been welcomed, but prolonged i>cyond the time first fixed for its duration. Tho reason {or this change of demeauour is that Dr. Sun goes as the accredited envoy of President Yuan-Shih-kai to lake soundings—it need not be put more definitely than that as yet—with a view to a commercial and political entente between China aud Japan. To take first China's point of view. That Dr. Sun runs a great risk in undertaking (if ho did not actually originato) such work cannot be gainsaid. The Chinese, even many of those now in au« thority who were (rained in Japan, dislike tlie Japanese, with all that common antipathy which one nation fcols for another that is like itself in many ways and yet not like! which has copied from itselt, in some respects has improved, has succeeded where the prototype has failed.

Chinese Mistrust of Japan, Moreover, Chinese statesmen mistrust Japan. She championed Korea against China, took it away from her, and, annexed it. She drove liussia out", of Southern Manchuria and slaved there herself, i'mally she has entered ifito an entente with, Russia, her lato foe. Yet, at the beginning of a new regime, China mav well feel 'that she cannot afford to liug old jealousies and suspicions. The worse her relations are with Russia over Mongolia—and they aro well-nigh desperate—the more urgent it is for her to be on good terms with Japan. Financially she sees difficult days ahead. It is all important for her to mako friends with the mammon of unrighteousnesn, to gain a trusty ally in the sixPower combination, Finally, China ana Japan are near neighbours, mutually good customers, and by temperament more capable of understanding each other than any two other nations. In all probability Dr. Sun sees this more clearly than most of the countrymen, but there is good reason to suppose that he has convinced the President at least. The Case for Japan. On the Japanese side the case for an, entente with China is even stxcuiger, »• s* suniine, as there is jio doubt they go, that Japanese statesmen look far enough ahead. If Japan had had her way, the Powers would have intervened to Keep the Jliuchus on the Tlu-one as Constitutional Mcnarclis. I belie™ it is undisputed that Japan proposed as much to kreat Britain, and was dissuaded by her. With the establishment of the Republic two albornolivo possibilities were to be faced. Either China would go to pieces, the victim of undisciplined finance, and then it would certainly be well for Japan to bo on good terms with the remnant.of constituted authority in China. But this contingency is not probable. Small evidence u.s can be found m China 10-uay ot organised government, the country can go on drifting as it is almost indefinitely, provided 110 trouble comes from without: and little by little some kind of government will bo evolved, after the usual Chinese fashion, of adapting external notions to its own genius, which will suit Tlnis we come to the other alternalit e, that, woner or later, China must develop into something that she has never been before. Tho immensity ot her natural wealth, the thrift and industry of her people—tho men 011 the laim ore lor a growth that cannot be l.cpt down. Crude and impracticable as are tho enthusiasms of the student doctrinaires \\ h misrulo China to-day, they have touched hidden springs in the life of China which will move in spito of them. Mutual Assistance. Looking to that result, it is no exaggeration to say that China becomes an economis necessity to Japan, who, with tlie poverty and tiny area, could not dream of competing with a reformed and uwukcj* ed China. 'If, therefore, Japan could not avert the Republic, her only course is to endeavour to mould it by making friends with it 011 practbal linos ot' mutual asstetance. It is noticeable that of la»o Japanese publicists have dropped cnticjs* iug the fact 01' working of the Republic, to agree that China lias a perfect right right to decide what form of go\eminent «lio Khali have, and to lay emphasis on the fact that 22 per cent, of all Japans foreign trade is absorbed by her great neighbour. . . As Dr. Sun Yat Sen runs a risk 111 tho present enterprise, so does Japan. \VIIIIt the Powers would say to the piospect of China's wealbi and industry befriended, shaped, and exploited by Japal) is easily imagined. On the othar hand, Japanese statesmen might well prefer to make sure of a profitable friendship with one near &nd importarc neighbour, rather than hold by the uncertain good will ot tiv© moro or less remote Powers, a majority of ,wJiom certainly regards her as cm alien. , * Tins article is not written to awake, a now form of tho Yellow Teril bogey. Japan has very good reasons for not appearing asfjjrossive. Xjr is the proposed entente lilcolv to materialise 10-da> or to-morrow, liufc both Dr. Sun \'at Soil and his Japanese hosts are accustomed to look farther ahead tlmn that, and tho probable tr°nd of events drives the two countries together.