The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1909. RUSSIA AND JAPAN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 226, 21 October 1903, Page 2

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1909. RUSSIA AND JAPAN.

The situation in the north-west is causing politicians a good deal of anxiety and the feeling is growing thai war between Rus?ia and Japan is not . far off. The Russian Press also appears to hold that opinion, The alliance between Great Britain and Japan gives the question a deep interest to us. The Peterburgskiya Viedomosti, the organ of Prince Ukhtomski, in an article headed the Par Eistern question, says : —" In our opinion recent events in Macedonia are of only secondary importance in compirison with the action of Japan in the Far Eist. They might certainly hasten the solution of our problem of the occupation of Constantinople which must, sooner or later, become a Russian city, t but that solution must in any event come about in time, unless some colossal mistake is committed in the future by our diplomacy. Much more serious is the question of the conflagration which the Japanese are seeking to light in our Far East. The situation is dangerous, because in the regeneration of the yellow races the real interests of Japan are affected, and it would be erroneous to attribute the bellicose ideas of the Japanese to passing chauvinistic tendencies. They undoubtedly di'play an enormous energy, and we must look forward to the moment when they will use with desperate energy all their vital forces increased tenfold, as they will be by this extreme tension. It would be an unpardonable error not to consider this contingency.! While the conflagration is still smou'dering it is easy to smother it-, and that must be done, even should it be necessary to crush with a giant's foot this proud young State ia order to attain that end." The Svyet, discus- , sing what it regards as the bellicose desires at present shown by the Japanese public and proas, observes that the Government of the Mikado does not appear to regard lightly the possibility oi a Russo- Japanese war, and that it is trying to persuade public opinion in Japan that such a war would be a most hazardous enterprise, and that in the case of defeat Japan might even lose her independence. Nevertheless, adds tho Svyet, the Japanese people ore thirsting for war and are prepnring for - -it. ' Consequently any serious complication may become the signal for an invasion of the Russian Empire by Japan.