Jan. 3.
A RECENT mail has brought us an advance proof of the preface of a book by Mr. F. A. McKenzie, the well-known war correspondent and former editor of the "Dimes Weekly', which appears destitied to e: ite world-wide attention. The title, which we have taken for the headline of this article, is sufficient indication of the contents. Partly owing to the rigid censorship enforced by the Japanese authorities, partly to the overwhelming number of questions of world importance.with which the public was surfeited during the past year, it is probable that but few foreigners outside Korea, even in the Far East, have paid much attention to the independence movement which began Jast spring, still fewer have been able to follow it in any detail. Mr. McKenzie is one who has studied conditions in the interior of Korea for himself. The result of his investigations was given in his book The Tragedy of Korea", some portions of which are incorporated in the new volume, which was published in 1908, two years after the deposition of the Korean Emperor, and two years before the annexation was, in the face of Japan's former pledges, announced. It remains to be emphasized. that Mr. Mc-Kenzie is certainly not inspired by blind anti-Japanese prejudice.
"No man (he says) has written more appreciatively of certain phases of Japanese character and accomplishments than myself. My personal relations with the Japanese, more especially with the Japanese Army, left me with no sense of personal grievance but with many pleasant and cordial memories. My Japanese friends were good enough to say, in the old days, that these agreeable recollections were mutual. I have Jong been convinced, however, that
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.