March 13.
Five months ago Count Okuma, at one time Premier and Minister Foreign Affairs of Japan, urged a Kobe audience to spare no pains to extend Japanese commerce in India. In emphasizing his point he declared that three hundred million people in that country were oppressed by Europeans and were looking for Japanese protection. As two independent versions of the speech appeared simultaneously in the "Japan Chronicle" and the "Kobe Shimbun" and were unchallenged at the time, there was no reason to doubt that the speaker had been correctly reported; but as soon as attention was directed in England to his remarks Count Okuma authorized the stereotyped repudia~ tion of the accuracy of the reports. Tt must not be regarded as a very serious reflexion upon (aunt Okuma, who is un old man and much addicted to public speaking, that his clementi launched so long after the speech in question carried little weight against the testimony of the reporters, who, acting independently of one another, could not possibly have attributed to Count Okuma identical words unless he had actually used them. In uny case there was little need to attach much importance to the fane pas of abun's political free-lance. served, it is true, to call public attention to a certain inclination in Japan to cast ambitious thoughts in the direction of India, but for the rest it was merely an unfortunate lapse from the friendliness and courtesy that might have been expected from a politician who at one time stood high in his country's esteem. On March 4, however, a meeting of the Association of Indians in Japan gave Count Okuma an opportunity of correcting the had impression that the incident of the Kobe speech had left on the minds of some of his own people as well as of others. It could hardly have been a coincidence that he was chosen to propose the health of King Edward in the presence of a representative of the British Embassy in Tokio, but it must be acknowledged that he made the most of his opportu:
The whole of his remarks would seem to have been devoted to an appreciation of Great Britain. For forty years, he assured his hearers, he had been an admirer or worshipper of that country, and this Sehwarmerei had even led his own people to suspect his loyalty to Japan. His Anglophil proclivities were first inspired by his acquaintance with Sir Harry Parkes, whose: intimate percepti a of the conditions existing in Japan and his earnest endeavours, apart from the discharge of his official duties, to lead hor wlong the wisest path, had merited the gratitude of all true Japanese. Japan could never forget the valuable assistance she had received from Great Britain at the time of her rear administrative Restoration. In those days Britain had stood forth a: the champion of imp and the success of that cause Japan owed much to her wise and sympathetic insight. This record, never to he forgotten by his countrymen, had been maintained and strengthened in connexion with treatyerovision, when Great Britain led the Powers in extending recoynition to Japan's aspirations. In due sequence the Anylo-~Japanese Alliance was cemented and a com-inanity of interests arose that embraced territory with which Japan had always had traditional relationship. From title immemorial Japan had received from India the seeds of her tion in the fields of art, literature and religion, and India was now governed by the ruler of Great Britain whose ideal was liberty and justice. OF late years the relations between India and Japan had grown more and more intimate. ('commerce was increasing between them and many Indian students were repairing to Japan for educational fected not only the tions between the two also their sentiment one towards the other. At this point insistence upon the need for extending Japan's commerce in India led naturally toa reference to the Kobe speech, which, continued Count Okuma "had' been wrongly reported." Finally, in order that nothing should be lacking in the amende honorable, he sought to impress upon Indian students that it was a most fortunate thing for India to have fallen under the sway of a liberty-loving and just country like Great Britain. The rest depended upon the Indian people themselves. If their aspirations towards civilization were earnest and strenuous, there could he no doubt that they would receive at the hands of the benevolent Sovereign now ruling over Great Britain a full measure of local autonomy.
The warmth of Count Okuma's remarks in Tokio makes the misunderstanding that must have been evoked by his speech before the Kobe Chamber of Commerce doubt ly regrettable. We may hope, indeed, that the Japanese agents who are now finding their way through the length and breadth of India. will have had any " views" they may have derived from the earlier utterances duly corrected before they start on their mission. Japan can have no interest in coning her hospitable shores into a ical Cave of Adullam for Eastern Asia, for there is always the danger that it may in time become the resort of "every one that is distress and every one that is discontented" among her own people. It is true that she cannot refuse to offer a home to Indian or Chinese students who come for educational purposes. But when no sharp line of distinction is drawn between educational pursuits and political intrigue, care should be exercised that no highly placed official or prominent Japanese should associate himself with these foreign organizations. The identification men in the position of Count Okuma with a body of Indian students in Japan is apt to become a froitlul source of misunderstanding, if at any time revolutionary documents
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.