The demand of General Kikuchi, commander-in-chief of the Japanese forces in Korea, for an increase in the length of service for the Japanese garrison there, which is tantamount to strengthening the military grip on Korea, since this will dispense with the transfer of trained. soldiers from the peninsula to Japan Proper and their replacement by virtwally untrained recruits, is now receiving the attention of all thinking Japanese, the more so og this demand follows on. the heels of the recent massacres of Koreans by Japanese. Japan has now five Divisions in Korea. In_1914, the year of the War, she had two Divisions, and this may have been perfectly all right as, at that time, Russian intrigues were still rampant in that part of the world. At the end of the war, with Russia out of the running for a long time, with China weaker than in 1914 and with Japan immensely stronger, the Japanese garrison had increased to five Divisions, This was further gwelled when the Japanese forces of occupation were evacuated from Siberia, some of those troops coming vid Manchuria and Korea and. several reMaining in the peninsula.
The Japanese ara now asking what this further move of General Kikuchi to strengthen the milittary position in Korea can mean, especially as Korea is in no danger whatever from external attack, neither China nor Russia, even if either wishes, being in anything like a position to assail Japan'y position there. The only conclusion reached by the Japan-see themselves, a conclusion that observing foreigners concur in, is that Korea is rapidly becoming another and a bigger Ireland, thanks to the recent massacres.
Dr. Yoshino suggests that, instead of allowing General Kikuchi to have his own way, the additional expenditure that will thereby be involved, be utilized in giving generous compensation to the families and. relatives of the Koreans slain on and after September 1. Although money cannot restore life, it can yet be consolation and a seal of good faith, and he believes that in this way, and this way alone, will Japan be able to forestall Korea from being more "Irish" than Ireland over was.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.