dat July. We have seldom read a more despairing estimate of the present position of Japan vis-d the rest of the world than that which is. given ina leading article in the most recent issue of the magazine written in English by Japanese and published at Tokio, the Orient. The writer begins by saying: "We often wonder what, after all, Japan's treaty allies really think of this our counti over the editorial columns of European and American prints, we frequently see this Empire spoken of as "a coming Power, or 'a factor to be reckoned with, no mean aid in the solution of the Eastern problem,' ete. Our navy and its recent rapid growth have caused political wiseacres their heads in apprehensive Our military expansion have given quite a large number of magazine writers a very bad quarter of an hour. Our growing commerce and successful rivalry in trade in many branches have aroused misgivings if not dislike in note than two or three directions. Vu e it all in all, we very seriously doubt that we have succeeded in holding our rights in the Far East; and believe, vith equal positiveness, that we are, gradually but surely, being ousted from that position which it is our duty and our need to maintain."
Japan is no longer a baby, says the Orient; she has got beyond wanting " kind advice" or broad hints as to what she should do or should not: do. She commands the north-west Pacific and therefore the solution of ithe Eastern problem ought in deed; and in truth to rest with her. "Thus strongly fortified from without, thus favourably situated from a guographical point of view, thus favoured by climate and with the history of a heroic past to back us, there is no reason whatever why we should not {play a far more important idle in Eastern politics than the one now assigned tous. In point of fact, it is an unwholesome and bitter truth that we have well-nigh lost our pres tige in its entirety. For we have; at last come to understand that suc-leess in the Far East, as elsewhere, does not depend wholly upon the number, size, or swiftness of men-of-var, but that it begins and ends With diplomatic shrewdness, adroitness, and finesse, And it is just these points that we find our representatives abroad most regrettably deficient."
"What have we gained by our /war with China?" the Orient goes, on to ask, virtually admitting what twe have always argued that it "was Japan which forced the recent war on China. Japan has, indeed, gained Formosa, but she did not
another island to her_ territory. begin the conflict in order to add [Phe ostensible object of the war
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.