"DISTURBER OF PEACE"

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2153, 20 May 1914, Page 7

"DISTURBER OF PEACE "

, JAPANESE PRESS ON SIR lAN . . HAMILTON THE METIER OF ASIA By.Tclegraph-Prcss Aisoetetion—CawrieM "Times'* and Sydsev "Sim" Scrvicee. i.lice. Jlay ■ 10, G.lO p.m.) TokiOj May 18. Tho Japanese Press, referring to Sir lan Hamilton's recent remarks on the snbje-et of tho Eastern menace, declares tint. Japan must prepare to stand aloiso and face tlio white races in battle. Asia must co-operate with Japan for their common defence. Tlio newspaper "Maiiii::!ii Dampo" complains that Sir lan Hamilton is a disturber of the peace. ?OKIG UNEASY, BRITISH ENTHUSIASM FOR. ALLIANCE DOUBTED. (Press Association.) (Rec. May 20, 0.5 a.m.) London, Jlay 19. The "Daily Mail's" special correspondent at Tokio says that the Japanese doubts concerning British enthusiasm for t.he Alliance have been renewed by Sir lan Hamilton's Auckland speech referring to the Pacific as a pdssihlo battlefield between Asiatics and Europeans. Count Gknma's declaration has not removed tho uneasiness. Tiie "MainicTu Dampo" declares that Japan must warn ihe other Asiatic, nations of the fearful conscqtie-nces of tho whito men's prejudices and unrighteous attitudo. Japan lias 110 warlike designs, but is striving for an equal foot' ing with tho whites, THE GENERALINTERVIEWED. ®y TeleirraoJl.—Frisss Association.) Wanganui, May 19. A "Chronicle" reporter waited on Sir lan Hamilton this evening in reference to the cablc from Tokio giving the- ■ Japanese Press views on his utterances. ; General Hamilton said that ho was unable, owing to military rules, to tnako any comments thereon.

During the course of a speech, delivered at Auckland a few days''aso, Sir lan Hamilton remarked, aptapos of the question: "Why are we arming?" that, the Pacific was the meeting ground, not of nations, but of' continents, and here it might bo decided whether Asiatics or Europeans were going to guide the destinies of this planet. These- were more or less obvious vtasom, but there were others which lie believed to bo 'real and true, although they were more or kss under the 6Urfaoe. In t'iia Mal.ay States, for instance, they would see a fine people going under before tiie influx o£ Imv c!:'.:-i materialistic coolies brought in. to work for low wages from China. Tho country, over which 110, travelled two : years ago in the course of his inspection, | showed feigns of bvc-aliing up; the eld j moral restraints had gone. While there,! he saw a modernised Chinaman scratch-' ing Iris name with a nail upon tho wall of the Temple of Heaven. That, temple, until recently, hftd be?n held so sacred that Uu? Einpeyor alone niisht approach it, and that only enreo 111 the year. This was but on illiish'atKta to show the change out ef which was evolving a chaw and weltering confusion such »s existed at the time of the French Revolution from \rhich Kapoleon arose. Lastly, tiiero were signs of danger in our Empire to the whito race from th« existence of this materialistic factor. In Ladysiiiith, ■ when he first knew that town, the main street was a. -street of prosperous btisi- ; ne«3 places run by European shoii-htepers.' ' What a change . had been wrotight when he went''there ..two years ago. He> had iaken Sir George -White's place as lir-csi-dfrnt of a Ladysmith and siad kept eonsta-ntty and closcly in touch with the place. Where formerly a- Kuropwin shopkeeper had prospered, the monopoly of business vas now held Ij.y bunyahs and ooalies, who existed on a c-euple of nteals of rice per day. They had no eoftstructivo' or prosjTcssive-. talent, but .they _ fiouhl handle lira coins of the realm with extreme nicety. This •theft, was the point of his story: this was why, instinctively, in time q{ progress and prosperity, Australia and New Zealand should not lose sight of the ne> eessity for preparing for defence. If a people, with hfeii ideals and high sfciiivdards, were forced to live ehseb by jowl with a, people of low stotdards and. low ideals, they inttst, eitlier betomo siavedrivers or sink to tka- level of those by wham they were, surrounded, in which case they-would be beaten.