Schroeder, a German gentleman of Yokohama, had a record sale las: week, not a Mr. Schroeder' writes vigorous and incisive style, has many Englishmen, English j rialists even, would very much like to attain to; and he has distinguished himself of late by deliberate.
Afriem war, in opposition to perhaps every single one of his countrymen here in Japan. But it is neither his style nor the able series of <anglophile articles he is publishing on the anti-Chamberlain Agitation in Germany" that has led to the last copy of his paper (that of January 4th) being now out of print. It is his revelations regarding his relations with Mr. Coates, the German Consul-General_ in Yokohama, and with what he calls ta German clique secretly established under the name of Deutsche Vereinigung Yokoham:
"The quarrel between Mr. Schroeder and his Consul-General seems to have arisen a far back as the year 1885, when the former was established in Tokio as a book sell and when Mr. Coates was German Vice-Consul in Yokohama. A charge was brought by Japanese ayainst Mr. Schroeder of accidentally wounding a person (fahrldsside Kirpercerletzung), but he says he was refused permission to adduce such evidence as would have clearly and unmistakably proved the charge to be basle-s; in fact no evidence that would exculpate him was admitted or called for, let us charitably hope (I am quoting Schroeder) in ignorance of the law of evidence, so that, in violation of its most elementary principles, Mr. Schroeder was sentenced to a heavy fine. An appeal was made to the Supreme Court at Teipsis, supported by the evidence, including a report by two respectable Yokohama merchants, which Mr. Schroeder had been prevented from bringing into Court. In that appeal the defendant did not mince matters.
It seems that the mere fact of an appeal against his decision being made so imitated Mr. Coates that he procured the practical boycotting of Mr. Schroeder by the German Asiatic Society, where he was refuse' admittance, because Mr. Coates did not wish to meet him there.
Mr. Coates has yet to learn," says the editor of the "Eastern World," "the elementary fact that a public official is a public servant, whose salary is paid by the: public that furnishes him employment, and. our people at home who have to pay taxes and imposts on house and land property, which, owing to hard times at home, we have to help to pay, furnish a contribution towards that salary. He, and with him some of the Germans in Yokvhama, have also to learn the further fact that it is both the right and the duty of the public Press to watch over pub.ic officials and to censure them when they deserve censure. To the little tin gods of officialdom and to their following of wheedling sycophants such censure, however, is nothing short sacrilege, a crime against the existing order of things that must be avenged by all upon the ruthless perpetrator."
The Raison d'tre of this onslaught seems to be the fact that the German clique which is against Mr. Schroeder intends to establish a newspaper in Yokohama, but how this could have led to the trouble is not quite easy to see, as Mr. Schroeder himself confesses that he was asked to undertake the publication oj the paper and refused. The paper will be a weekly; its title will be Deutsche Rundsc!au,"" and the editor is to be Captain Madlung, a retired officer. Mr. Schweitzer, sot such a! who is said to have been chiefly instrumental in the establishment of the "Ostaasiatische Lloyd" in Shanghai, will be responsible for this enterprise, to which the German Government is said tu have promised a subsidy. Mr. Schroeder, who is not perhaps quite unbiassed on this point, says that "the new Piepvogelorgan will boil over with patriotism—for the government has been pestered for a subsidy sand has been foolish enough to grant it—; every clerk will be told that it will be a matter of honour (Ehrensache) to subscribe to the organ, and to get others to do the: same, and the clerks will have to submit to the new tax, or be considered—horribile dictu—disloyal and unpatriotic, and the promoters will pronounce the new paper 'a success from the start.' The editor, of course, will be a man who has the rare ability to please everybody—of course he will have to show his articles to the literary committee,' and have them approved before printing them—and thus everybody will be happy. For a time.
As regards the existence of any anti-English feeling on the part of the local pledged supporters—which they deny, anonymously of course—well, the denial is good policy, for they have to catch local English advertisements first before they can their true colours, for a year if possi-the meantime, or at any time indeed, they can shelter themselves behind the editor, who is, of course, solely responsible" for whut appears, in their organ."
AAs for Captain Madlung, he has already had some experience of journalism, having been connected with the ' Ostasiatische Lloyd," which paper he recently represented in Berlin; and he must be by this time on his way to Japan, as the first number of the new paper is expected to appear on the Ist of March.
"Deutsche Vereinigung."
It"must be confessed, however, that if Mr. Schroeder is hitting hard at his German brethren, his German brethren are not hitting back over gently at him. In the first place his paper has {been formally banished from the Club Germania in Yokohama; and in the second his name has been struck from the list of members of the Deutsche Vereinigung, Yokohama-Tokyo, Mr. Schroeder has retaliated by taking legal action against the President and Acting President, Messrs. M, Pots and A. J. Holm respectively. The charge against these gentlemen, which has been lodged with the Chief Public Procurator of the Yokohama District Court, is one of having obtained money from th" complainant under false pretences. Mr. Schroeder says that in 1901 he paid his $10 to the Association, which promised in its statutes to call half-yearly general meetings, which promise, however, it has not kept.
But perhaps when the Deutsche Rundschou" appears we shall hear something of what the other side has got to say. So far we have heard nothing.
Captain Madlung was never connected in any way whatever with the ' Ostasiatische Lloyd," and Mr. Schweitzer had no connection whatever with the establishment of that paper.—Ed. N.-C. D.
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