THE WAR IN MANCHURIA

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7764, 16 March 1905, Page 3

THE WAR IN MANCHURIA

JAPANESE DENIAL. Warships at the Philippines. SECRET PEACE EXPECTED. LONDON, March 14. The Japanese Legation deny that Japanese troops [Hissed through Mongolia to get to the Russian rear at Mukden, and cite many instances of the Russians' violation of Chinese neutrality. i Fifteen .Ju|>unesc warships were sighted on Friday near Palawan Islands, in the PhMlipines. 'l'.he highest officials in St.Pcters>burg l'eai' the army a( Tiu'ing will be unable to withstand imminent attack. diplomats in Washington expect that Russia and Japan will shortly conclude a secret peace, it is ~.\ pected that the chief Powers! will claim that the terms be submitted for their inspection. GRENADIER CORPS MOBILISED. | LONDON', Match 11. I Ihe Will- Council in St.' Petersi•burg is forthwith mobilising three divisions of the Grenadier corps stationed in Moscow, and two ai'niv corps. General Grlpenburg (who lvcentiy resigned) will commuiKl them. OFFICIAL DENIAL. (lieceiud March 1."), it. 15 p.m.) LONDON, March 15. rile reported recall of Admiral Rozhdestvensky is semi-oiiicially denied at St. Petersburg. General Limievitch, after holding the Japanese at bay at Mauehwntun ami lieta lor nine days, retrealtd to Tieling, via Fushun. ' General Uiiderling, using the Mnndui in load, and GeneraJ Ivaullmrs. using the railway, a lso reachedTiclillg. tieai-guavd actions continue. The Japanese captured stores oil char- 1 coal, exceeding their own supplies. Correspondents and attaches confirm General Oku's statement that the Russians deliberatulv .'.'helled stretcher bearers during the lighting [>u the Hunho. RUSSIAN PRISONERS. (Received March l.">, 51.57 p.ni.) LONDON, March 15. ' r J he Daily Mail's Tokio correspon-I rkrnt says a portion of lheJal>ane.se force at Fanchiatun, seven miles From lieling, and another portion at Shuangehiawtzu, live mi'Vs from ' rielingv The total nuinbei' of Russian prisoners is one hundred thousand. JAPANESE AND THE ATTACHES. JENERAL J3ILDERLING REPORT- I ED KILLED. * (Received March 15, 10.7 p.m.) j LONDON, March 15. > Most of the foreign attaches ac- 1 :ompanying General KjuropfltKin I'ri/ he Japanese hands at Mukden. The Daily Telegraph's correspondHt states that General Uiiderling is eported kjiUed. RUSSIAN LOAN POSTPONED. (Received March 15, 10.7 p.m.) PARIS, March 15. A syndicate of French banks has Kistponed the issue of the Russian oan< Le Temps states that owing to the iresent state of uncertainty in Man- ' Kuria and the Czar's disposition to j ontinue the war it is natural of ' he banks to postpone the issue till I. lie situation is clearer aixli nioivj : ettled, and the state of things as- ' ured. | The paper Liberate states that the 1 oan is only postponed a fortnight. HARBIN AND TIELING RESEMBLE HOSPITALS. TERRiHU-: suffering. (Received March 15, ll.lilpm.) LONDON, March 15. 1 Ilarbin and Tieling resemble va»t hospitals, where many wounded remain in uncovered trucks, half frozen. Chloroform and antiseptics are lacking. Tiie mortality is frightful. THE .JAPANESE SPIRIT.

At the London School oi' Keonomics recently Mr V. Okakura, of the Imperial tniversity, Tokio, delivered the .second of his course oi' three lectures on r IMio Japanese Spirit." The lecturer dealt with the religious doctrines that had bwn most influential in forming the .Japanese spirit. Confucianism, he said, was lirst introduced into the Imperial household of Japan, according to sonic accounts, in the reign of the 15th Emperor, A.I). 284 ;• but long before it reached the Court the learning of the Celestial Empire had made its Influence felt among the people of Japan through -the swarms of immigrants flowing in from China. Conucianism pure and simple was noth- 1 ng more or less than a collection of thical ideas considered in their ai>>lication to daily life. The great eacher never allowed himself to be onsidered as the expounder of religious or metaphysical ideas. A|>rtract reasoning had little charm for the mind-of Confucius. Filial :>iety was the keynote of his teaching, and was thus especially congenial to the Japanese temperament jut not until after the introduction at Buddhism from Korea in A.D. 552 fid Confucianism take deep root in Japan. Paradoxical as it might be, Buddhism was the influence that made the teachings of the Chinese sage the ruling factor in Japanese society. The gospel of Buddha was accessible only in Chinese translations, and the study of these necessitated a previous knowledge of the written language of tho Middle Kingdom, whose literature was saturated with the teaching of Confucius. The warlike ancestors of Modern Japan in those days possessed no literature, but only legendary lore, and on their untrained eyes the elaborate Chinese system produced a great impression. Buddhism found nothing antagonistic to itself in the teaching of Confucius,-which contained in a slightly different form the five commandments of Buddha. The lirst •blossoming of Japanese civilisation occurred in the tenth century after Christ', and Then the Book of Filial Piety was# a genera* possession all over the country. Taoism, or, more correctly. was enunciated B.C. O<H. In Laotze was to be found the perfect opposite of Confucius. ITe Taught that the salvation of humanity was to be effected by the abandonment of artilice and a return to iraturc ; by the sunendej of the individual will and the suppression of the ego. " Leave," lu said, "the so-called saintliness ant wisdom, alone : Abandon the so-callei mercy and righteousness ; and tlu people will return to filial devotior and love." This doctrine had ver\ little to do with the cult of Taoisn now so prevalent among the Chinese in which the metaphorical state ments of the teacher had been givei interpretations never intended b> him. The resemblance between tin true Laoism and the higher forms o Buddhism was very striking. Botl the higher and the lower Buddhist! had been adopted in Japan—tlx- phil osophical form by the upper classes and the other by the populace. Tin doctrines were taught by a numbei of seels, of which the /on sect hat exercised the greatest influence oi the Japanese spirit. " 7,0n ' meant abstraction, which was one o the wa>s of arriving at Nirvana llow was it that a system which rt commended pure contemplation ha* taken such deep root in Japan, c which the spirit wax prompt In the ages when Japan was ton with internecine wars a religion wa> needed that would teach every mai and woman how to pass from glow ing life in'io icy death with a smile how to meet the hardest fa to will stoic fort it tide. At the heginnin; of the 17 th <vnUir\ Japan at las out of tin- p-riod of interim disl i»rb'an<'»\ ami b\ that time lb contemplative school had had amp! opportunity of asserting its virtues The only external invasion v»it] which Japan had ever been threat ened was that of Khubla Khan, whi assembled a mighty armada for Ih conquest of the islands. But whci his preparations were complete, ; great typhoon, known to this da; among the Japanese as " the divin storm," burst over the China seas and destroyed the fleet oi 'the would be invader. What won for Buddhism its strange popularity in Japan wa; not its promise of' Nirvana, but it to nerve the heart to faco an; Qrde&l at & wmftt'e &Qtlcq*