82 1
POLITICAL PHRASES.
(Daily Press, 4th February.j
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03
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
u from
entered
ןיי◄
[February 9, 1907.
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But she has beer komning a | deadly earnest, and there are missionaries 'respect.
and preachers whose real attitude, under sindar aggressive a diey with regard to her the professi mal pse, is one of cynicism. ., eommereia' relations all round, and not the part of her momentary financial But all the schools of logic in the world leas!
diff -lties am atributable t› this cause. won't cure the illogical tou-lencies of human
Of wr entries that are attempted a system of bainties and subsidies all round have t and in the end, even when they the project a shampered by dela, that the game. was not worth the can de; and most lave given it up alto- incidence. The gether or reduce its Japanese Ministry propos to raise a sum for the exigencies of the year of no less thin Sixty one millions sterling. This when we come to examine it is no less than
head thirty shilinga :L
on every map, women and chill in the Empire. It is trus again ↑ at Great Britain with a population about equal to Japin has a fixation of more than twice as great individually, but the individual population of Geat Britain is a gà al many ti nes richer than thest of Japan, and morsover not only is the debt of Great Britain entirely an internal ou", but an appremable port of the taxation is applied to the reduction of the debt. But a very small part of Japan's debt is internal, and there is als nately no appropriation for
་་
Referring to the notes the Blue Water School" by Admiral Sr CYPRIAN BRIDGE, which we have reproduced else dure, Sermons an argument are doubt. where in this issue, the Times remarks that less like sermons on morals, seed spilt on nothing obscures argument or controv<r«y st ny ground; it will not be amiss, however, like a nickname, a fact of which politician's if the visual remark of the Times, thus and persecutors in behalf of religions are extended by us, pats suns fo♥ readers on very well aware Our contemporady did their guard against being lel away by not elaborate this important pou","as it sh holeths, and nicknames, and a lages, seemed more desirous of recapitulating and, The habit of critical analysis is one that, emphasising the points already sufficiently' while it robs us of much of the joy of well made by Sir CYPRIAN BRIDGE. It partisanship and combat, sis
a blunder and foolish nation. seems to us a point worth dwelli: g on, how, ¦ "
Ljekams,"
the Times his ever, by all who are or expect to be engaged : Those in kind of cutroversy, for we dánbt if ; dubbed them, have been te liously numerous, politicians and persicut rs in hebat of and they have of 'ate years done more than religious
are so well aware of it as the obseure issues; they have done the work of Times sup oses them to bu, The con- the Gadarene devils, and sut verds of silly troversialist would seem to be well aware of swine gallop ng headlong into a of it, because he invariably adopts the tacties, trouble. and scores by fitting his opponent with some nickname that has an ad explandum effect and detracts from the seriousness of the opposing arguicent. But it is mipartiil observers who are well aware of this: the disinterested thinker only wo should
66
any
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and obscurantist aspect of a trik that
as
JAPANESE FINANCE.
se.i
(Daily Press, 5th February.) At the e use of the past year Japan found herself with a debt am dinding 14 round
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:
Britam f els unpleasantly the iscilence of
be said to b fully cognisant of the illogical figures to, as near as po side, 200 millions payment. Stilt the popu ation of Great nearly all keen debaters use, as it were, by five pounds sterling a head of her popula- / bixation; so it is but natural that tht of
instinct. The success of it depends upon another mental frailty, the careless habit of permitting misused terms to have thu ir false values embalmed, so to speak, or stereotyped.
fair
{
sterling. This, it is true, amounted to but
tion, & clever and highly industrious one. Naturally Lapin is not a preeminently rich country; the greater portion of its surface is occupied by mountainous contre, aud
The word machiavelian' offers a
is its mineral wealth, though cousid rabe, illustration. A politician without being
hardly above the average. Her statesmen absolutely dishonest way attach this adjec-if well advised woull have so: themselves, tive to his rival's policy; his auditors from with the same energy as thy displayed it derive only a perception of unprincipled
during the war, to tike measures to reliev cunning; the uick ame sticks; the real issue is obscured. The word cowardly ising her people of the hevy burden of their another sample. The Times says England should go to war only when not to fight would be cowardly; but there are times
i
indebtedness; her P sition am gst the nations was assured, and the only nation whose aggression she had in any masure to apprehend was fiucially in a worse
both
WAN
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Japan
suld stagger under hers.
But, as
the Jap mose press points out from one end of the Empire to the other, although by us ag up fils provi elfur other purposes, the Government may posily he just able there to seramble through the present year, is nothing in sight to supply the necessary
lex'. yasiney
The Government takes creht to itself for possibly Ending in its coffers after squaring un the accounts of the
war a sum (estimated) of some 100 million yen: it lik wise includes under the term of rev-urte a suvñ of somo 14 million yen, to be derived from the sale of Government
balanced.
Governm ut property consists. but appa- · rently the sale of surplus stores after the war forms one of the more important. Now it is clear that such a r soure· cannot be looked upon fairly as real revenue, yet it is on such a slender reed that a budget of It is to the credit a the native permant expenditure is sought to be press that it has eenly seen the falsehood the position taken up, and has had the hardihood expose its inherent weaknes, But a sill more important defect re- A large portion, some immunist lun ticed.
three millions sterling, of the accrues from Customs duties. budget hee had on
when much moral courage is nceded to show į position thin herself; and hides had so: property. It does not spe is of what the what the world calls nowardice. A wit e inany serine troubles at home, that ter ACLs on the principle that humour, of sarcasm or irony, is a powerful weapon; the beginning again a policy of annexat on person criticised has only to retort buffooni plany for the moment at least out of the | realm of practicas pohties. In ad·lition to or frivolity; and for the majority the humour
this the secʻann of the Russ'an De spe is at once discounted. Adages and aphorisms and government who lay ured wholesale are the very mischief as samples of what we may call this ad explandum currency of gosion had been ensidera ly reduce
in numbers and influenze, so argument. Thus a local missionary, first that Japan might fairly look forward wildly assuming that newspapermen are ¦ to a few years, at least, of unchallenged absolute strangers to religion or religious |
home. But the spirit t questions, publicly pronounces the plausible Chauvinism which ras been less ning ini opinion that only those who throughly Russia, has unfortunately been growing in understand Christianity from the insi le are
Japan. She Fax made up her mind to compelent to discuss the missionary
increase her army by fifty fer cent, in the question, He may have Leen misreporte¡, i
face of her expei ce during the war that 80 we need tot divulge the reverend with her admirable system of organi ation
peare at
gentleman's mare. Had WC not just and her skilled staff, she was able to plas,
1
eveil
ey could
Į
į
t
dates
revenue In the last protectionist priu. been raised to such an extent
1.
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"pes sriously to famper the trade of the Em- itt new budget it is seriously pire:
deulel to raise tee still higher, and an additional revenue of £80,000 is estimated to b - abtaine 1 by increasing these protective
in order. as stili
the Government would fondly propound, to this is. bring in an iner Asød however, as a moment's consideration will A vowedly show, a contra liet on in terms. the eulased rite is to shut out all foreign comptition, and as far as this would be
reveme.
refered to the du ious value even of
new levies, in the field superior in popularly accepted aphorisms, we might
every respect to those that the e have replied that lookers-on see most of bring against her. The natural lesson to the game, an idea which occurred in eped-e learned from this was that as long a ently to both China and Europe, and has
she kept her organisation complete, and hali long been crystalised in the speech of both sufficient men under arms to keep up the en is of the world. But even with its truth'
nucleus of a powerful arty, she hal in the admitted, the issue would not be properly present position of affairs, when trene - clarified. The point is that the preacher's!
ment was obsolutely necessary, absolutely assumptive premiss was patently unwar.
to cause for apprehension. But Japan has ranted; that in any event it is not the
not been confining her aggressive methols arguer but the argument which counts, to her army, nor even her bavy. A tavy though too often the public scans
is not to be made in a day, nor a year, but mouthpiece and does no inore than glance is a tak needing long avid stea y prepara. at the message. This expos-s them to the
Economically Japan's tion beforeland. risk of swallowing as truth what may be need of a strong navy is merely a good, honest, ernest man's error; and of ignoring the true wisdom that some- times at least has been known to issue from "babes and sucklings." There are irreli gious meu-not necessarily immoral, by the way—whose attitude toward life is one of way called in question her wisdom in this already been seriously hampered by the
the
off stiv · to seriously diminish the volume of
But A
foreign trade, and the first effect of such a ystem would be, as a tyro in political economy could see at a glance. To less n instead of increasing the colection. as clear as the
emdev in
here. the evil could not us lessness from the same point of view
ne essary effect of the enforced diminution of her keeping under arins a powerful
s it is noteworthy that one of of foreiga trude it is easy to see would be army;
th. productive capacity to diminish her critics, at home or abroad, las in any
of the country at large.
This has