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April 18, 1904.]
war has been forced upon unwilling Ministers by the weakness of the Tsar himself. is the very peculiar course taken in the Tsar's name by Count Lamsdorff to be accounted for with any show of consistency. We are aware that it was the fashion to parade before the world the peaceful instincts of the present occupier of the throne of Peter the Great. If these instincts have been productive of anything. that thing is certainly not
The peace.
very Peace Congress at the Hague had a narrow escape of plunging the world in a bloody war at all events while the Tsar was credited with preaching peace abroad. at home he or his advisers have been straining their utmost efforts towards the creation of warlike weapons and the collection of warlike stores. It was not from want of pressure from the Tsar, but from the innate rottenness of the Russian system. that the opening of 1904 found his forces in Eastern Asia after years of preparation at last taken at a disadvantage.
SONS OF THE SEA.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT. Really I think it is out of the question to
the So only estimate numbers of these Oriental Vikings; I do not suppose anyone in Japan knows. As a tangible factor in the present war the material afloat in the Pacific archipelagées may not have any direct value But
at all. as an indication of the Japanese race, and
the spirit of the character of the opposition Russia is likely to meet, the vast Pacific Ocean certainly tells a tale. It is almost the tale of our British Howards. Drakes, Frobishers. Grevilles, Raleighs; as they were found in every corner of the north and south Atlantic, the Japanese are in every corner of the Pacific. There are some differences; will not try to press the parallel too far. but so far as Russia is concerned there is only too much truth in it. For Russia has practically no sons of the sea.' Her Baltic sailors are mostly Finns and Swedes, good sturdy fellows, but utterly lacking in go." Her Black Sea sailors are Crim Tartars and Levantine riffraff. Her Pacific sailors are almost non-existent. She has a good length of Pacific coastline, peopled by half-Eskimo tribes, and the only fishing that is done in these waters is done by Japanese. The Russians proclaim laws to exclude them, as Spain made laws to exclude British ships from trading with Spanish America; and the Japa
[FROM A CORRESPONDENT.] Sometimes there is a whole world of unsuspect ed significance behind the most casual common. place. For instance. the unique Inland Sea of Japan, studed with thousands of little islands, is the home of myriads of boats and boatmen. It is almost impossible to find a piece of water in or near Japan without finding white sails dotted plentifully over it. The Japanese artist, who can seldom get his imagination to carry him beyond the realm of things he sees and knows, never depicts a boatless sea. Be it sunrise or sunset. moonlight or silver-gray mist, calm or storm. fjord or lake or rolling ocean, every piece of water has its sampans or junks, and sailor men born.
The world at large knows this, to weariness perhaps, for one may tire of Japanese screens the invariable white sails on the horizon.”
and
.
But the world seldom thinks that Japan probably excels all nations in sea population. That is a big thing to say.
Little Japan to lead the big Powers? To beat them hollow, to stand far in front of all the world?
Precise figures are not obtainable in any country, for sea-going population' is a variable quantity. There are men who spend their lives in boats yet never get out of rivers and harbours. There are men who go to sea at times and at other times get shore em- ployment. There are several other factors to consider, rendering any statistics open to challenge. So the comparison can only be approximate, and the deductions only genera. lisations.
There are probably no seas in the world so crowded with fishing boats as the Japanese waters. The whole nation. over forty millions, subsists on a fish-and-rice diet; probably no nation in the world eats as much sea-fish. The Chinese have also large numbers of sea-junks, along the coast from the Yangtsze southward, but their total salt water population cannot compare with that of Japan; while North China and Corean waters are remarkably desolate by
contrast.
nese
I
incessantly poach, smuggle, trespass, pirate. fight, and do everything in Russian waters that Englishmen did in Spanish 500 years ago. Only the Government of Japan, being of the Twentieth Century, disapproves, and prevents such misconduct when it can. But Russia has no maritime population out here. There is no sea spirit in Russia. She spends money freely, trying to force some sort of maritime growth; but her people do not take to it. It is as hopeless as if a duck hatched a lot of pheasant ergs and tried to teach the chicks to swim. Nature is not a mere garment, to be put on or taken off, to be scissored and Kewn and trimmed at will. Russia crying ceaselessly for ice-free ports, access to open water, merchant marine expansion, and naval power, is a great overgrown baby crying for the
moon.
The Japanese, even those who are not sailors by profession, are familiar with the idea of braving the sea in all its moods; danger is to them a thing to play with, to laugh at. to glory in; if Death claims his own, every now and then
well, that is part of the game. Centuries of the Samurai régim, and familiarity with the swift" swish" of the two-handed sword, genera. tion after generation. gradually eliminateil from the Japanese race all regard for the value of life, all notion of the terrors of death. Death is to these people a much lighter matter than many of the troubles of life. In fact, death is nothing to them. A Japanese, standing care- lessly on a railway crossing, may be just dragged aside in time to avoid a train by an inch; he laughs hugely. It is the biggest joke he has come across for a long time! This utter callous ness often angers the foreigner greatly. But it has a real value, at the right time and place. It is the foundation stone of intrepidity. It is this, and this alone, that makes a race of men defy the sea and conquer it, as none have done except the Anglo-Saxon and Japanese: and who does that, can conquer all.
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aid he remained there for more than weeks, and during that time he appointed a number of generals, among whom were Isabelo de los Reyes. Pio del Pilar, Justo Lukban, Vicente Lukban, and Cayetano Lukban. Ruiz, who remained in Hongkong, was to fill the position of Secretary of War. Another witness. Scarella, a detective, testified that several meetings were held in which the defendant decided to bring Ricarte to the islands for the purpose of carrying on another he returned to Hongkong. furnished Ricarte. revolution, and that Dr. Justo Lukban, when
with financial aid. He also stated that there were present at the meeting Mariano Noriel and Dr. Gomez, and that Pio del Pilar was interviewed as to the advisability of the move, and arrangements were made to confer with Malvar and several others.
has been interviewed by a Daily Press repre- Dr. Justo Lukban is now at Hongkong, and sentative. He left Manila for Japan in Sep- tember, the climate not agreeing with him. The charge was made during his absence. After a pleasant sojourn at Tokyo and other places in Japan he came to Hongkong and set up in practice, thinking this Colony healthier for him than the other port. When the charge was made in January his two brothers were arrested, only being released on putting up a bail of $5,000 gold each. Dr. Lukban declares that the charge is false. Scarella has never been in his house, and was only known to him on one occasion when he went to visit Scarella's mother, then ill. Mariano Noriel was known by name only to Dr. Lukban; he had only met Pio del Pilar once, and that time at Aguinaldo's palace. Dr. Gomez belonged to the Nationalist party, whereas Dr. Lukban does not believe in the Nationalist, but belongs to a Democratic party now in formation. Dr. Luk- ban did not conspire with Ricarte, or give him any money. When Ricarte went to Manila Dr. Lukban was in Japan.
16
MR. SIXTO LOPEZ.
While Manila newspapers rave about the dangers of the Hongkong Junta and the risk of allowing the Filipino patriots to go back to Manila, it is rather interesting to read some contrary views in representative American papers. There is no newspaper more represen tatively American than the springfied Daily epublic (though it does not come from one of the leading cities of the United States)—in fact, it is recognised generally by Americans as a free, outspoken organ. In recent issues of the paper appear some notable articles about the present situation in relation to the United States Government's refusal of entrance. to the Philippines of some of the men who are presently exiled in Hongkong, and who have property in the islands which they naturally want to reap the profits of, and more than that, families whom they long to find themselves amongst. It is interesting to note that the Republican has written more than once of the wrong inflicted upon certain Filipinos by their expulsion and compulsory absence from the archipelago simply because of a technical point. of law involved in the taking of the oath of allegiance. Mr. Sixto Lopez will be well remembered in Hongkong in many circles. He is a cultured Filipino gentleman, whose family suffered severely by the occupation by the
There are great numbers of small craft to be seen in the Mediterranean, and along the coasts of the British Isles, and northern European countries, but nowhere do they appear in such HONGKONG AND THE FILIPINOS. Americans of the Philippines, he himself having
countless swarms as off the coasts of Japan, not only in the Inland Sea, but out on the mighty Pacific, the misnamed ocean of terrific typhoons. Japanese trading schooners, and fishing and whaling craft of the bigger and bolder types, range from the Behring Sea. Kamchatka, and the Aleutian Islands, Alaska and Vancouver, down to the Thursday Island pearling-grounds, the palm-fringed coral islands of the cannibal Kanaka tribes, the Solomons. the Friendlies, the Marquesas, Fiji, and Tahiti. the Carolines, and the Great Barrier Reef. Not in their thousands, at these remote places, but if ever a lonesome group of islets, out of the world entirely, have but one little trading schooner to visit them once in a year, it is an even chance that that one boat is a Japanese. And of the whalers, sealers, pearlers, smugglers, black birders or quasi-slavers, even pirates, roaming about the myriad islands of Melanesia and Polynesia, under captains of European blood, the crews are usually composed of a few Japan. ese and a mixture of all sorts.
21
TEE LUKBAN CASE.
Perhaps many in Hongkong know but little of the Lukban Case." now awaiting decision at Manila, though it is closely connected with this Colony. It is alleged that Ricarte, a Fili- pino general, who fought against the Spaniards, and subsequently against the U.S. troops, was assisted to return from Hongkong to the islands by Dr. Justo Lukban. In days past, Ricarte, after prolonged fighting, was captured by the Americans, and, refusing to take an oath of allegiance, was exiled from the Philippines. For some time he remained at Hongkong, where he managed to keep body and soul together by more or less humble occupation. In the middle of December last he returned to Manila on board the Indo-China steamer Loong Sang, the quartermasters, apparently, assisting him. The quartermasters are now under arrest at Manila. According to the evidence of Jose Muñoz, Ricarte arrived at Manila at the request of his lieutenants. By their financial
had to flee to Hongkong to escape the fate of & patriot who chooses to uphold his country's cause.
His secretary, Mr. Thos. T. Patterson, will also doubtless be remembered by not a few in Hong- kong. During his stay here some two years ago he made himself extremely popular, and on his return from an ineffectual attempt to land in the Philippines-ineffectual because he would not take the oath of allegiance, being a British subject-his welcome by his friends here was a thing to be remembered. In February his daugh- ter was christened at S. Paul's Cathedral, London, by Rev. Canon Childs-Clarke, Sir Horace Tozer acting as godfather. After the ceremony 'the Filipino colony in London, in recognition of Mr. Patterson's services to their country, presented Miss Patterson with a christening gift in the form of a handsome gold necklace with diamond and ruby pendant.
Correspondence in the journal above referred to shows that an American living in the west offered Governor Wright a $100,000 bond guaranteeing Mr. Sixto Lopez's pacific
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