The Daily News. SATURDAY, JULY 2, 1904. "THE YELLOW PERIL."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 153, 2 July 1904, Page 2

The Daily News. SATURDAY, JULY 2, 1904. "THE YELLOW PERIL."

American papers of recent date, dealing! with the subject that has caused ?*> much concern in some quarters, the "threatened invasion" or rather incursion of the Mongolian races- into Caucasian dominions should Japan be victorious in the conflict she i 9 now engaged upon, make some plain truths clearer still. One, referring to comments appearing- day by day upon the subject in both EuroI>ean and American newspapers, points out that even so sturdy and a paper as the London Spectator is fearful that a victory of Japan over Russia will lead the Japanese Government to an aggressive attitude that may endanger tihe interests of European and American interests in the Far East. The "Yellow Peril Dugat/oo," in- fact, assumes such dimensions with the Spectator that that journal fears a practical alliance of .Japan and China, and Q.ccojxlin«r .to-6!»E~ .vTTter, an am'bition for conquest, that will be a menace to all the White Powers and cause ' a momentous change in the balance of power in Asia." The New York World, on the other hand, whose editorial insight into and comment upon current happenings are generally very clover and to the point, soes more '-'Yellow Peril" in a Russian than a Japanese victory. "If there were a '-YelUw Peril,' " the World observes, "it would be invited not by the victory of a smull island empire, restricted from land conquest hy her very position. It would be invited by such a Russian absorption of China as the Czar's jingo advisers were planning only a Hew months ago." The World gives the further reminder that "Whom Russia conquers she arms. She conquered the Cosaacks, and uses them to beat down freedom in Finland and in University towns with their leaden whips. She conquered the Tartars—and the Genghis Khan of to-day is an officer In her army." The writer proceeds :

Russia in control of China—j 500,000,000 souls under one abso- ! lute iron rule, nearly half the poo pie and more than two-thirds tin ai-ea of Europe and Asia—migilu indeed be something of a "Yellow Peril," though handicapped by poverty, ignorance, and inisgoverniftcnt. A Japanese triumph would present no such possibility, The peace of the world would bo 'best served in any event by China retaining what Mr Hay lucidly calls hei< "administrative entity." "But why," another journal asks, "a 'Yellow Peril' at all}" If Japan goes on in the same way jylue has bet-n do-ing the past few years she will be as peacefully inclined as Great Britain or the United States. All she is fighting for now is- to preserve her own territory and the right to govern lierself. Japun has i/iVen no ui-gn of a desire to compass the conquest of Korea, All she asks is that the little empire be preserved in autonomy and kept from the control of Russia, If Russia should eventually win this war no part of Europe or Asia will be safe, and Japan will s',lc simply wiped off the map unless Britain and America a rod France and Germany step in. With 'the introduction of western civilization ant! enlightenment, boih Jajwin u-mi China will eventually Uecuiiie a.s duwrous of trading with olher nations as are Great Britain and the I mted States, and thej will value peace ami amity in commercial relations the same as do the Angio-baxon peoples l . Japan allows no desire for contjuost of terriiory, and China has ever evinced a w.i&h to be E/imply let alone. There arc, moreover, not wanting 1 signs in tho greater regard for humaao tjliods shown the Japanese as compared with tlie Russians, and the former's more liberal attitude generally, that Japuneye aswmlancy in the Fur East is likely to bo far more salutary than Russia's. The Christian GuuitKmi ivlnU's «ii incident which is greatly ( () t,lio cralit of the Japanese character, furnishing an example of high principle that may, indeed, put Christianity i n other lands to the tost to ntjual it. The Guardian says ; At the outbreak of the RussoJapanese war, the Japanese residents oi Vancouver, 8.C., held a mooting in the City Hall, at which about seven hundred of their race were present, and with great enthusiasm pledged tfioinsel res to patriotic support of their fatherland, and organisod a committee to collect a lund for transmission to the Japanese Government in aid of carrying 011 the war. So successful were thy collectors that in a short time seven thousand dollars were collected, an amount which is expected to bo increased

to ousand dollars. Here j ymfies in' the most interesting and , part of the story. Several large amounts were sent in by persons eagaiged in improper purauits, ami the leaders in the movement decided ti) call another meetins to decide whether or not those :'.'ho»l<l lc accepted. with the result that it was unanimously de-,-i as one of the leaders put it, to reject the contributions from those people who do not regard the moral law of the land. Accordingly," na.vs I lie write", who is iu> oilier than our own Japanese minister there, the Hev. tioro KaLmagi, "we have refunded the subMcriptions to the men and women, Willi a letter in which we praised their loyalty to the Emperor, but we told them that we regretted to know that they were engaged ill an occupation that w,as contrary to the 'dignity and honour of our Mikado. . . . Therefore we advised ihem to give up their present unholy pursuit and return 10 an honourable business with the money we returned, which would be more loyal to the Crown than sending this money to the war funds. We told thrill that we kmjw they were lighting for a righteous cause, and as we were on the right side we must not commingle unrighteous gifts with righteous ones.'' I How different is this to tire picture opened up to the mind's eye by a brief cable message received a few days ago, Wherein it was stated. that the imposition of additional taxation in certain districts in southern Russia, rendered necessary on account of the war, was causing great distress among the people and intensifying the already existing distrust of the populace. Notwithstanding the rigours of famine tiie extortion of a certain sum in the form of tax-money (the amount being alneaidy and arbitrarily fixed) is carried out to the bitter end. Money is wanted, and money must 1 be obtained.'; whence its source or what the channel of its collection -does not matter. In this connection it may not be drawing too sombre a conclusion to predict a repetition of the terrible scenes witnessed on the steppeg of South-eastern Russia thirteen years agw, if Russian officialdom persists in its present oppression of the lower ordersi—whose only use, apparently, .in their opinion, is to provide money.