RUSSIA AND JAPAN.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 80, 12 April 1901, Page 4

RUSSIA AND JAPAN.

AN INTERESTING COMPARISON. [N.Z. Herald.] The decided stand which is being made by Japan in the matter of the Manchurian Treaty naturally revives our interest in that Island kingdom. For if any military opposition is offered to Russian annexation of the disputed province, it will come from the “ little brown men ” ruled over by the Mikado. Not merely is Japan peopled by a branch of of the Turanian stock, kindred of the Chinese and imbued with all the stubborn qualities for which the Turanian is famous, but she is strong in the possession of European arms and European war methods; she is not handicapped by the endless international complications which hamper the Chinese policies of Britain, America and Germany; she has as intense a national feeling supporting her Government in opposing the advance of Russia as our own Empire had in resisting the attack made upon us by the ambitious Boer Republics. Britain cannot forget that South Africa is still unpacified, that a duel on the Indian frontier with OUR GREAT ASIATIC RIVAL is not lightly to bo entered upon, that we have commercial and political interests all over the globe by which we have given hostages to fortune. America has not yet made good her grip on the Philippines, and has not yet accustomed her own people to.the risks and burdens of Imperial expansion. Germany remembers always that her eastern frontier marches with Russia and her western with France, that to fling down the gauntlet for Far Eastern •interests is to enter upon a life-and-dcath struggle for very existence as a European Power. Japan alone can feel that her vital interests lie in resisting now an enemy which sooner or later she must fight to the death and which is attempting to secure vantage-ground wherefrom to attempt the dominance of the North Pacific. Japan has comparatively little to lose and very much to gain. Her people are still flushed with their victory over China and her rulers are still bitter because Russia forced them to forego the Korean f.iuits of that victory. All accounts from Pekin agree as to the discipline, courage and endurance of the Japanese Contingent with the allied forces. Granted a Government unencumbered with diverse and conflicting interests, a people convinced of its NATIONAL MISSION, a soldiery which' has good reason .not to fear measuring itself against any other : it is not hard to imagine that a blow may be struck on behalf of a national cause. That Japan will fight if it feels itself thrust aside there can be little doubt. The great question is: Will Russia venture to test the strength of this new candidate for status among the worldPowers ? The war strength of Japan has not yet been really tested, but is certainly very considerable. The four greater and thousands of smaller islands which compose it cover an area of under 150,000 square miles, without including Formosa, recently ceded by China. In this area, as large as New Zealand were our North Island duplicated, not a quarter as large again as the United Kingdom, it carries the surprising population of close upon forty-three millions. When we remember that this population has been built up with little foreign trade, and was until lately practically self-sustaining at a very high standard of Turanian civilisation, we must be impressed with the JAPANESE CAPACITY for governance and organisation. It is in many ways the reverse of China. The Japanese are the cleanest people in the world ; they are imbued with a noble and chivalrous sense of honor and duty; they excel in the industrial arts and possess the faculty of imitativeness to a pronounced degree; they have all the Turanian indifference to death, combined with a gallantry and nerve Malaysian rather than Turanian in its nature. Certain of their moralities are decidedly un-British, but certain of our national vices are unknown among them. Taking them altogether the Japanese are emphatically the best non-European race. They are probably the most dangerous' rivals the AngloSaxon peoples will have to encounter in the future struggle for the mastery of the Pacific. Their monarchy claims a royal lineage of 2500 years, and though absolute until twelve years ago voluntarily established a CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT, in 1889, based upon the British system. For a generation Japan has spent her money lavishly in inducing European scientists, professors, teachers, engineers, and mechanics to enter her service and instruct her young men. She has sent thousands of students to Europe and America. She has established national shipbuilding yards, arsenals and ammunition factories. She has a first-class navy. Her army is of the newest type. In fact, Japan has gone to work as persistently and energetically as the Transvaal Republic went to work, with the difference that she lias had over 40,000,000 people instead of under 400,000, that she has aimed at general superiority instead of military superiority only, and that she dreams of world-conquest from the North Pacific instead of from the South Atlantic. It is somewhat consoling to know that, for the time at least, this Turanian example of deliberate and calculated State-building confronts our friends the Russians as the Boers confronted ourselves. The world is so wide nowadays that very few developments are altogether unique. The events' of the

CHINO-JAPANESE WAR of 1896 are so fresh in the public recollection that it would be gratuitous to recall them. It was shown beyond doubt that Japan was a State to bo reckoned with. Since then it has been widely asserted that she will ultimately come forward as the dominant partner in a great Turanian alliance against European dictation. She herself has demanded and is being quietly accorded all the rights of a civilised State; in 1899, consular jurisdiction in the treaty ports was abolished by agreement; in 1906, the last vestige of foreign interference with her customs will elapse. It is known that when the Allies advanced to Tientsin last year the Chinese endeavored to detach the Japanese from the Concert. Now the Japanese are said to have distinctly promised China assistance in Manchuria if the Russian demands are refused. At sea THE JAPANESE NAVY is probably equal to any squadron which the .Russians could assemble in Eastern waters, for it is not conceivable that the Tsar would send his whole tfeet to the Pacific. But Russia has the impregnable naval bases of Port Arthur and Vladivostock, while Japan has no port on the Continent. And although the Japanese drove the Chinese from the sea, wo cannot yet estimate their sea-fighting qualities as compared with the Russians, whoso vessels are largely manned by sailors of Teutonic blood from the Baltic provinces which onee formed part of the Swedish dominions. The stubbornness of the Rus sian army was learned by Napoleon at Borodine and Moscow, and by our own generals in the Crimea; it would bo folly to under-estimate the prowess of the warriors who have extended the rule of the Tsar from the Baltic to the Pacific, and who are dreaded by the justly celebrated strategists of Germany. Russia has a A WAR STRENGTH of 2,500,000 >men, but could carry army cerps but slowly over the single TransSiberian line. Japan has 268,000 troops available, besides millions of militiamen, but could not readily bring them into action, even with Chinese assistance, if Russia held the sea. Considering all the circumstances the two Powers are not illmatched, and since the base of each one is practically safe from attack, any war that arose would probably be long and bitter, and unsatisfactory at the end.