THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, JULY 16, 1908. EXPLOITATION OF KOREA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9140, 16 July 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, JULY 16, 1908. EXPLOITATION OF KOREA.

It is interesting to note that the introduction into the Japanese Diet of the Government Bill for the establishment of the Oriental Colonisation Company for the development of Korea has elicited a chorus of condemnation from the vernacular Press. The whole scheme outlined by the Bill is open to the gravest objections—that is, if it is really desired that Korea should be treated as an equal State and not aa a subject province. It should really be entitled a Bill for the Exploitation of Korea by Japanese, for it will be observed that, while the operations of the company will lie entirely in the peninsular, it is provided that the president must be a Japanese, and though one of the two vice-presidents is to be a Korean, at least two-thirds of the directors and auditors must be chosen from among the Japanese shareholders. Nor will the fact that one of the vice-presidents and one-third of the officers are Korean be any real safeguard of Korean interests. True, it is provided that just as the appointment of Japanese officials must be approved by the Japanese Govern-

ment, so the Korean officials must have the approval of the Korean Government; but it is scarcely necessary to point out that in the present circumstances this is merely a distinction without a difference. All the officials will virtually be subject to the approval of Tokio. The Oriental Colonisation Company will be a Japanese company, financed by Japan, officered by Japanese, controlled by the Japanese Government, and necessarily governad wholly by Japanese interests. Its objects are stated to be the purchase, sale, leasing, farming and colonisation of land, the supply of seed and disposal of produce, the engagement of colonists and farmers, and the construction, purchase, sale, or leasing of houses for their aceammndation. In short, the rew company is to apply to Korea the principles under which the South African Chartered Company is now developing territory which a few years ago was ranged by more or less savage tribes. But ic is evident that the conditions in Korea are wholly different from those in Africa. The Government delegate/ in speaking before the Committee, said that the object was to found a company on the lines of the old East India Company of England. Through the East India Company England became the ruler of India, and there can be no question that the object of the support rendered ' the Oriental Colonisation Company by the Government is to strengthen the Japanese control over Korea. It is feared that the actual result will be to increase rather than allay the friction Detween the two peoples. As by the constitution of the company the Japanese are to have the controlling voice, the Koreans will certainly regard the project as one for the exploitation of Korea in the interests of Japan. Now, the Korean is strongly attached to his land—it is the thing which to him is as important as life itself—and when, he finds the land passing from his hands to those of the alien he will mo3t bitterly resent the process. This scheme for the exploitation of Korea has within it the germs ot endless trouble for Japan.