Ir is an open secret that a vigorous effort. is being made by Russian sympathisers to reopen a campaign in the Far Enstern Press against the Yellow Peril. Even the German Emperor, who was at one time so strenuous in his denundations of the Yellow Peril, in speeches, and by pen and pencil, has, since Japan has shown herself a great military and naval Power, consigned this time-worn bogey to the lumber room. 'I'he Russians, defeated and discredited by land and sea, have before them now the prospect of the unpleasant half-hour when the bill has to be paid; and they hope by parading the Yellow Peril Bogey and getting a portion of the Press to bang the big drum in front of it, to get some of the Powers at any rate, whose fears may be more effective with them than their knowledge, to come to Russia's assistance and, in what is represented to them to be their own interest, aid in depriving Jupan of some of the fruits of her well-earned success. There is no genuine fear in Russia, whatever there may be in other nations, of the Yellow Peril. The object of the new campaign is simply to persuade some other Powers to help Russia in getting the terms of the peace that she must have made as easy as possible; and when peace is once arranged, Russia will cultivate a warm Aeoaship for Japan, will discard the Yellow Peril Bogey altogether, and will be ingenuously astonished that it ever should have imposed on anyone, "Tet the Powers who have possessions in Asia and the Asiatic islands still turn pale at the thought of the Yellow Peril," she will say; " Siberia is not an Asiatic possession, but an integral part of Russia; and Japan is not going to-attack Siberia,"
he "frat danger is supposed to be that the Japanese will overrun and reorganise China, will capture the whole of her trade, and make China so strong that she will become, under Japanese leadership, menace to the rest of the world. Her motto is supposed to be " Asia for the Asiatics and when in the dim distance the last foreign steamer has taken back to Europe or America the last foreign resident, the whole trade of Asia with the West, if Asia has still any wants that Japan cannot supply, will be done by steamers built in Nasagaki and flying the flag of the Rising Sun, according to the Yellow Peril-phobos. Although it will doubtless take Japan some years to recover from the strain and stress of told whether these dependencies of this great war which we trust is now drawing to a close, she will certainly make a great step forward, as Germany did after 1871; but it is absurd to ssu that she can monopolise, with her resources in case cad money, the whole trade of China. That she will even succeed in Japanising China is most improbable. Throughout the history of China, every tribe or nation that has invade ed China and not been expelled, has been absorbed in China and become Chinese. Great and persistent efforts have been made by the Manchu Emperors, since the last con-ques, to, Keep up the distinction between Manchus and Chinese, but they have failed. China, conquered herself, has slowly but permanently conquered her conquerors, until today the Emperor Kuang Lisa himself is recognised as one of the best Chinamen in China. The Japanising of China means the uplifting of this Empire by the spread of Western enlightenment and civilisation; and avery step that Japan makes China take in this direction means a step in the direction of a greater love of liberty and independence in China, The Chinese will not be ungrateful to rheic Japanese teuchers, but they will learn from them, with other things, to insist on observing the motto "China for the Chinese," not "China for the Japanese." The intelligence and common sense that have Kisplayed~"much to the sur-the Japanese Emperor and statesmen
prise of many foreignerg who thought they knew them well—ever since the Restoration, intelligence and common sense which have raised them in less than forty years from a condition of feudal isolation to the position of one of the Great Powers, will not be overwhelmed by their military success, for this success has not come to them, as it has to Western Powers generally, as a surprise, but was fully anticipated when, after Russia's contemptuous treatment of her ten years ago, Japan began steadily to prepare for the great conflict in which her action has startled
have wondered at the calmness with the world, Foreigaera in Japan which the Japanese have accepted their unbroken series of victories but they knew beforehand that they were going to prick the Russian bubble as they pricked the Chinese bubble ten years ago.
There are people, like our correspondent " W. H." this morning, who seem to honestly believe that the ambitions of Japan are unbounded. They are becoming, we are asked to believe, a menace to Indo-China, to India, to Netherlands India, Australia, and the Philippines. All the Asiatic possessions of Western Powers are threatened, we are told. Our flesh is to be made to creep, as it never crept before. We are not the West are to be gobbled up by Japan separately or simultaneously. If separately, are we to suppose that the other Powers will stand round, fascinated, while the possession each one of their number is gobbled upon its turn? If simultaneously, where is Japan to find the men or the money for such an exploit? Will America lend her the money to carry on the absorption of Indo-China, or England float a loan for her to capture the Phillipines? These are not the countries to which Japan wants to send her surplus population, It must be remembered that much of Japan's commercial success in Ohina is due largely to the cheapness of her labour. The military instructors and the teachers and professors of all kinds that she has sent in such numbers to China have been welcome because of the much lower salaries they have been willing to accept than foreigners, and the fact that they can live much more cheaply but these discrepancies will redress themselves as Japan becomes recognised as a Great Power, and her ability to compete with other Western Powers will become less unequal. They will undoubtedly have to bestir themselves to keep up with her, but that she will be strong enough in the near or distant future drive them out of Asia is a wild dream, and there is no probability of her trying it. The English-speaking nations, at any rate, have got beyond quaking at bogies, whatever their colour.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.