THE AWAKENING EAST.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 138, 3 August 1911, Page 2

THE AWAKENING EAST.

INCREASING! PROSPERITY. OPPORTUNITIES FOR NEW ZEALAND. AND AN IMPERIAL POLICY. Numerous visits to the E;v=t, coupled with an observant iniml, liavo placed Colonel G. W. S. Patterson in the position of being able to speak with interest on matters connected with the Asiatic. Colo mi Patterson returned to Auckland on Sunday last,

after an extended visit abroa.l, during which ho travelled ext am' saw San Francisco, Seattle, \ iciorhi (.13.C.), Vancouver, Shanghai, Sintau (Northern China), Dalny, Lioyang, Mukden, Niouwign, Seoul, Fusan, Yokohama, and Hongkong.

Speaking to ;i “Star” representative Mr Patterson spoke in enthusiastic terms of the awakening of the Eastern countries, their increasing needs, and large increase of impoits. This made it evident that New Zealand would be making a forward move by the establishment of a High Commissioner’s office in the East. New South Wales and Victoria have recognised the possibilities of trade relations and have taken the initiative by sending commissioners to Kobe and Shanghai respectively, and these men look after the whole of China, Japan, and as far south as the Straits Settlements. Japan and China show an increased demand, said Mr Pattorson, for butter, meat, and kindred products, while Japan has started to import wool to a great extent. Japan is not a meat producing country, although Mr Patterson saw some very fine cattle near Kobe, and as the people become more amenable to Occidental ways, the demand for meat will go up in leaps and bounds. Australia has got into the open door, and is exporting fair quantities to the land of the Rising Sun. RUSSIA’S GREAT NEED. “Russia’s great need is for a port in the Pacific,” said Mr. Patterson, referring to' the position of affairs between the two countries that are still.recognised to be rivals, “and that this is kept in view was seen when a well-known, but reticent, Russian gentleman said to me, ‘Our time will come,’ ip regard to the position. Russia has a fine country north of Manchuria in the trans-Baikal province, six times larger than Germany and France, and they have been pushing on settlement to this in a fast manner, even before the recent war with Japan. The country is much similar to Manchuria, and is not locked up to any great extent by the winter. This was proved by a Canadian traveller- who has spent two years in the land, and gives his 1 'opinion that the climate is milder than in most parts of "Manchuria, and, a? equally suitable for agriculture. Russia has possession of Vladivostock port, hut for the greater part of the year this is icelockqd, and they have been casting envious eyes south as far as Dalny, now held by the, Japanese, and renamed “Dairen.”- Mr. Patterson spent a fortnight in Dalny, and he was much impressed with the work there being carried on by the Japanese, • who are putting their minds to the matter with a will, and making the port one of the strongest and best in the East. It is somewhere in this region that Mr. Paterson thinks Russia will attempt to force an outlet. The few Russians Mr. Patterson met in Dalny were very reticent on the subject, hut it was evident that they are still smarting from their defeat, and will make another attempt to oust the wily little brown man. JAPAN’S STRATEGY IN KOREA. Since the annexation of Korea by Japan, the latter country has shown great strategy by pressing on the railways in Korea, and it lias been decided to finish the construction of the railways connecting Seoul with Wonsan, and Taichon with Mokpo, in five years instead of ten as at first planned ' ’Hie Sepul-Wonsan line wild in lime hi extended to Kando, and when the line is standardised Japan will have two means of raising about a million men and transferring them into Manchuria should any trouble arise. The Government-General of Japan in Korea is laying stress on the development of the country, and agriculture, all >it station, roads, and harbours are receiving careful attention. The Japanese are afraid of no engineering difficulties, and they showed their enterprise by undertaking the construction of a bridge nearly a mile long over the Yalu River at Antung, connecting Korea with Manchuria. This .-pla'idi I 12-span bridge is expected to lie completed in November next. AUSTRALIA’S POSITION. Mr. Patterson considers that an exaggerated idea prevails as to the prospect ive danger from extensive colonisation of Australia’s Northern Territory by the little brown man. At the present time Japan is fully occupied keeping a watchful eye on the movements of Russia to secure a Pacific port for the great fertile trans-Baikal region, and the strides she is making i:i populating Southern Manchuria. Whatever aims Japan may have in regard to colonisation, her imperative policy is to concentrate population in Manchuria and Korea rather than to scatter, because she is surrounded by Russia, China, and America, with millions of people respectively, and the proportion of population must he maintained. With the extension of the treaty, Australia should have at least ten years’ respite. POLICY WITH THE EAST. The renewal of the Anglo-Japauecc treaty is considered to he a good tiling for America as well as for Australia. America was a good deal scared of a rupture with Japan, thinks Mr. Patterson, and although many people in the East said there was no ill-feeling with America, it was felt there was right through the

States. Concluding, Mr duiiterson said : j “f ile policy which is iii the future to j he adopted towaids the East will j directly affect Australia, New Zea- | _ hind, Canada, and even Smith Aliiea, | and, therefore, the component parts of j the Empire should have a part in j the framing of the policy. lhis| opinion was openly expressed in the English press in toe East. One writer calculated that a contribution by the daughter nations of Great ; Britain half as large per head as that | paid by the Motherland would settle once for all the question of supremacy in the Pacific Ocean. Great Britain is only interested in this problem as an integral part of the British Empire. The problem belongs to Canada, Now Zealand, and Australia in particular, and it is time that Canada opened her eves and her purse, and recognised that certain policies pursued with regard to citizens and foreign powers carry with them certain disadvantages, such as the creation and upkeep of a navy. The Asiatic problem is an Imperial problem, and the burden of enforcing the policy determined by the Empire in council must he borne by the Empire in arms.”