THE WONDERFUL JAPANESE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2191, 21 September 1907, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE WONDERFUL JAPANESE.

GENERAL BOOTH'S PREDICTIONS. (By F. A. McKenzie, in the Daily Mail.) General Booth is back again in England after a reception in the Far East such as no religious leader has had since the days when Francis Xavier made his triumphant progress. Received by the Emperor and honored by men like Togo and Oyianva and Okuma, he arrested and dazzled tho imagination of the Ear Eastern peoples.

Ho returns profoundly impressed with the future before the yellow races. “ They are like a rising, mighty, flowing tide,” he said in conversation at his home a.t Hadley Wood. “ The Vest is so busy that it has no time or inclination to consider what their new purpose means. China, now reasserting herself, hopes to see every yar dof her territory taken by foreigners regained.” All foreigners may yet be given notice to quit from there. “The Western world must- look to Japan as a new and powerful competitor in trade and commerce. She is no longer trimmelled by old ideas as to the degrading character of trade. It is only a question of time when her industries will he tutored with the most expert direction and packed with the- finest machinery taken from all tho nations of the world. I do not see what can prevent her from producing the finest articles at the cheapest possible price. “Take by way of illustration some of the machinery they are producing. A great industrial exhibition is now being held at Tokio. One of my staff saw there certain printing machinery, and he brought me word that the Japanese were displaying a rapid multi-color rotary machine which was not only an improvement in speed on anything of this sort in the United States, hut was produced at half the cost.

“ The progress of Japan will bo obtained by peaceful methods,” he continued. “The Japanese liuve not tho most distant desire for conflict. Many of their people died of a broken heart at the amount of blood and money spent in the war for such small results as were obtained. They intend to retain what they have got, and to retain it by fighting, if fighting is tho only way.” A little later the General reverted to the same subject. “ The Chinese and Japanese will come in competition and take the Eastern markets right away,” he said. “ Tilieir notions are different from ours. The Englishman knows nothing about thrift.

The Japanese lives, and lives in more comfort than you might think, on very little. A shilling a day is still good wages for the laborer. On first going through the streets you are impressed by signs of poverty, but when you inquire you find that none of the children start school in the morning without a good meal first, that there are no shoeless children in the schools, and that even the women of the poor have decent clothing. General Booth insisted very emphatically on the point that the time for final judgment upon Japan has not yet come. “Here is a country in process of social and political transformation,” lie said. “In every direction I saw evidences of this change. To judge Japan correotly you must bear this evolution process always in mind. They say that you must not show anything to fools and children until it is finished ; and fools and children will be likely to err in forming a judgment of tlio present condition of Japan, so tlhey had better refrain from attempting the task.

“There are, however, a great many things that I think are unsatisfactory. These, however, are many of them being changed, and will bo changed. Drink and gambling are the two demons waiting to pounco down upon this interesting nation. Already in the back streets tlic drink .shop* are spreading, although the habit has, so far, not touched the women.

I greatly admire the Japanese woman. Sho will bo emancipated ; we will have her saved ; a great deal lias been done to help her, and a great deal more is going to be done. And yet her lot may not be so lacking as outsiders think. The woman who is a good housewife, the manager of her children, a cheering companion to her husband, finds a very largo part of her life occupied, lit does not follow that it is so- very preferable that she should be a public character. It isn’t so important that sho should be tlio front horse, or rather the front mare. The man must come first. He must go first to do the fighting. But that is not what' we are dealing with now. There are splendid women in Japan.”

To China General Booth looks with lung'’""' -. Ho addressed a party of C' ■ students in Tokio, and v.'-it ' ! .ted with them. One Chinese student opened a vein and exinoted some blood to write a letter to the General telling him how he had found in him a master and,a teacher.

The old leader’s heart goes out for Japan. As our interview came to a close, he stood closo to me, tolling me of her possibilities. “ Oh, Japan !” be exclaimed band in air. I looked at the white-haired, uniformed veteran. There was a look in his eyes of prayer, of entreaty, of longing. One realised in that glance something of the causes of his success,