THE KAIKOURA STAR KAIKOURA, FEB. 16, 1904.

Kaikoura Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 13, 16 February 1904, Page 4

THE KAIKOURA STAR KAIKOURA, FEB. 16, 1904.

Japan has entered into the contest with her formidable opponent in a manner that has surprised no one except, perhaps, Russia. After playing the game of double-dyed duplicity with even greater success than the Muscovite, himself, could have reasonably anticipated prolonging, Japan’s patience became exhausted and the gauntlet was thrown down with an air of an end to such diplomatic trickery. The next moment the Japanese guns were run out and the conflict began before the Russian knew where he was. Japan has struck early, and heavily, displaying the measure of activity looked for. What the issue will be no man can tell. But there is no room for doubt as to how the Japanese will fight. “No surrender,” is their motto, and they mean it. One of his countrymen writes : “ God help any officer who quits in conflict, no matter what the odds. He had better go to Hades than return to Japan. Death is nothing to be feared, and it may be made glorious if the sacrifice is for the Son of Heaven and the Sun of Flag.” A Tokio newspaper declared recently : —“ Better for a Japanese the sorrows of a thousand hells than defeat or disgrace on field or flood.” How resolute the fighting

will be on the Japanese side can easily be judged when men write in such strains. That the language employed expresses the attitude of the nation is beyond dispute. There can be little room for question that Russia was simply fooling Japan in the so-called negotiations that have been going on for months past. In December a St. Petersburg correspondent telegraphed thus : “ . . . The con- “ trolling party in Russia regards “Corea as necessary to the con- “ solidation of Russian interests in “the Far East, and, therefore, is to prevent the peninsula falling into Japanese “ hands, and that any concessions “Russia now makes to Japan will “only be with the object of defer- “ ring the difficulty until a more “ seasonable time.” Then “ Niagara” for Japan. But the little brown man saw the danger of delay, and has acted in the interests of self-preservation.