Oct. 12.
'THIRTEEN years and two months ago the Japanese Government despatched a lieutenant-colonel and a force of gendarmes to the district of Chientao on the northern border of Korea and took possession of it, alleging that Korean residents in Chientao had appealed for protection against the brigands of the district. Chientao is a stretch of country about 300 miles long by sty "wide, enclosed by two arms of the Tumen river; and the question as to which of these arms constituted the frontier line had been a subject of wrangling between the C ese and Korean Empures ever since the year 1712. Following upon the Japanese seizure of this disputed territory, came protests from the then Viceregal yamen at Mukden, proposed appointment of investigatory commissions, supposed discovery Peking of ancient boundary stones and maps. And the Japanese gendarmes remained where they were, beat pos-siderites, for three years. Then came the time of the Antung-Mukden railway reconstruction dispute and of the Manchurian Convention. Under the latter Japan got the Fushun and Yentai collieries, the right to construct the Hsinmintun railway and other perquisites: and China got back the nominal sovereignty over Chientao, without detriment, of course, to free Japanese access and fruition of anything worth enjoying.
The story has probably been forgotten by most people, even by the Chinese, who made a prodigious uproar over the Manchurian Convention and started boycott of things Japanese. But it is worth recalling to-day, as another example of history's self-repetitions. Certain changes have had to be made. to justify forcible occupation by Japan. Tu 1907 Korea had not been formally annexed by Japan, so at that time it was Koreans who must ask for protection from bandits. To-day it is the Chinese residents who '"'are generally reported to want Japanese troops.'" And inasmuch as the downfall of the Russian Empire and the uprising of Korean malcontents are conspicuous events of recent history, our old friend the Manchurian hunghutze must be re-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.