China, Japan and Corea

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4797, 11 August 1894, Page 3

China, Japan and Corea

(By a recent resident in China and Japan.)

What Homo lias boon to European nations China lias been to Japan, From China came the language, art, and rcliirion of Japan. The relations of China with Japan have long been intimate and active, but by no means always friendly , The progressive Japanese esteem it derogatory to be compared to the Chinese. They acknowledge no inferiority excopt in their numbers and the superficial extent of their territory. The beautifully wooded peninsula of Corea has about 90,000 square miles of territory. It has always heeu a country Of romantic tales and a field to invest with the marvellous, because of its being secluded and unknown to the outside world. It is separated from China on the north-west by the River Yalloo and from Japan' by one hundred miles of Corean Straits 011 the south-east—a peninsula as isolated as Italy, which it resembles in outline, but it is so central between China and Japan that it has been the battlefield for centuries of these two more powerful nations.

The cloud - no larger than a man's hand—which has been hanging over this doomed peninsular kingdom since the 16th century now seems about to burst. Japan must secure additional territory for her teeming population. With her forty-two millions of subjects on an area about equal in size to that of Great Britain (one-twelfth alone of which is cultivatiblc, owing to the rnountunions nature of the country), she stands next to Belgium as the most densely populated nation in the world. Japan has found an outlet for 50,000 of her people in Hawaii, and each year this number is increasing. During the recent imbroglio between American citizens in Honolulu and the United States Government, Japan sent three warships to protect her interests there, and the writer, being in Japan at the time, noticed the ardour with which the Japanese press advanced their claims to be represented in deciding Hawaiian affairs.

It was not until 1882 that Corea became known to tho world, In that year the king accepted intercourse and made treaties with Great Britain, Germany, and the United States, but the trade of the country was found to bo in the hands of the Japanese, who had in 187G arranged the interchange of ambassadors and consuls, and the opening of Gensan and Fusan as ports for trading. As soon as the treaty with Japan was completed tho emigration to Corea was remarkable, and the number of Japanese residents in 1892 was estimated at 25,000.

Japan is in n desperate condition. The land is used to the utmost,overy square foot is turned to account, and it is difficult for the poor to gain a living and still remain liqnest and law-abiding. The writer is acquainted with a Japaneso who understands English, now employed by a British firm 111 Yokohama in tlie rosponsi ble position of collector of moneys. This man receives 22s Gil as a monthly salary, and supports a wife and live children. Mr Mcikan, of Osaka,tho well-known art decorator, of Satsuma ware, employs 12 of the finest artistes in Japan as assistants. By working | from 12 to 15 hours a day these men secure £5 asa monthly wage,whereas in decorative pottery works in England they could command #loaweek if they only know the market value of their talents. The rate of Avages, for Japanese peasants and coolies in in the tea-tiring godowns is considered good at 7ld per day, working from sunrise to sunset, but this only continues four months in the year, from June to September. Hence the imperative demand of Japan to acquire territory in Corea, and secure an outlet for her too numerous population.

It is to the interests of Great Britain that China or Japan should control the destiny of Corea to the exclusion of Russia. Vladivostok, the most southernly harbor of Russia in the North Pacific Ocean, is icebound for four months in the year, and thus her encroachment further south would be unfavorable to the interests of Great Britain, China and Japan. In 1885 Great Britain hoisted her flag at Port Hamilton, in the Corean Straits. This Island gave her the command of the entrauco to the China Sea from the north, but it wns abandoned under the combined protest of China and Corea in 1887, and the distinct assurance from llussia that she would not attempt to occupy the position. In the event of China and Japan going to war with each other for supremacy in Corea tho causo of Eastern civilisation would receive an impetus if Japan became the ruling power. Japan has advanced to a moro modernised stato of civilisation than China, and the progress and development of Corea, would be assured undor her control. Under Chinese Government, or oven by setting up as an independent kingdom, Corea would make but slow, progress. Japan is not in tho right in her claim on Corea, and it is questionable if she has the power to make good the demand. Li Hung Chang, the Chinese Minister, has had the foresight in past years to steadily increase the strongth of Chinas navy, and to give the command of the fleet to British officers,' so that iii nautical proficiency China is capable of coping with Japan on an equal footing, i The following tablo shows the relativo strength of the two uatious in 1893:

China. Japan, •; NivrArinoured ships... 0 6 Unarmotucdao.... 25 24 Armoured gunboats. 1 - j Unnnroured d 0.... 80 10 t Torpedo boats ... 43 . 41.' ; Total,,, ...Iw" ' 80 '

Altsiv—' ' lien ,' ' ;Mcri : Infantry... " . #O,OOO Total war j Cavilty ' . ; .i 83,000 strength 14G,212 Irregulars ...1,200,000 Kisorvc 173,400 —Melkurnc Argus. ' '