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NOTES FROM JAPAN.
(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
Tokyo, August 15th. THE ULTIMATUM. The situation which has arisen between Japan and China regarding the reconstruction of the Antung-Mukden Light Railway seems to have been viewed much more seriously abroad than in Japan itself. In Peking, reports say, the highest authorities were in ignorance as to what was going on in Manchuria until the eve of receipt of the ultimatum, This is a peculiar réport, but, considering how decentralised China's diplomatic affairs always are, not incredible, for what takes place in Mukden is not always according to instructious from Peking. It may, moreover, easily be a piece of bluff to enable China to back out gracefully from an impossible position created by the officials in Manchuria, as in this particular instance right appears to be on Japan's side and might being there also there is little fear for the outcome. Such is the view taken nnani- mously by the Tokyo Press, there being no disposition to regard the matter in the light of a "crisis," as the situation is evidently viewed abroad, judging from telegrams,
PUBLIC SUPPORT OF THE GOVERNMENT.
The Japanese public welcome this evidence of the Government's determination to force the hand of China. What is termed Japan's weak and conciliatory diplomacy in Chinese and American questions has long been a grievance of the Press and of political parties, and had the Ministry shown the least weakness in handling the Autung question its existence would have been jeopardised. A surer sign of approval of the Government's policy has been the steady upward movement of the share market during this mouth. To-day it is firmer than it has been for two years past, despite sugar scandals, etc., and this tone has been reinforced by the lowering of the Bank of Japan rate on Friday. In this connection it is stated that now the U. S. tariff revision is accomplished it is clear no change will be caused to Japanese trade in America. Trade all round will experience steady development. The only factor, says an official of the Bank, which prevented the lower- ing of the rate, besides the uncertainty with regard to the American tariff, was the situation vis-a-vis China, but there being every hope that all problems will be amicably solved, coupled with the favourable forecast for the rice and sericultural crops, the anxiety of the authorities concerning the money market has been brought to an end, and hence the lowering of the rate.
CHINA'S REPLY TO THE ULTIMATUM.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
of the past year, but there is absolutely no ground to account for the unfortunato position of the T.K.K. on any other basis than that of trade depression, and, perhaps, a lack of foresight in management. The directors must plead guilty to having three years ago, during a time of great activity but on the eve of the American panic and universal depression, greatly ex- panded their fleet and incurred heavy liabilities cannot meet. The Chiyo which they now and Tenyo may be fine vessels, but they not yet wanted on the Pacific. The Shawmut. Dakota and other white elephants marked the beginning of a series of huge steamers, none of which has ever paid. Mean while the trim 3,000 tonner of the Empress" type, which were earning dividends before these huge vessels were laid down, are still at it and will be good. for another ten years. The lesson is there to be learned. The Pacific is not likely
are
to have the same trade as the Atlantic for
[August 30, 1909. a resort that no foreigner regrets visiting. Of late years a remarkable change has come over the nature of the attractions of Asakusa and for the change the cinematograph is respon. sible. Formerly, everything extraordinary in animal life, the monster caught in the sea, the demon of the forest, every conceivable mons- trosity and absurdity, was a nine-days' wonder at Asakusa. Pokey little shows to which five sen was charged for admission have made way for large showy theatres which are crowded daily from morn to night, in heat insufferable and darkness impenetrable, and the performan. ces here are worthy of serious attention. About half-a-dozen of these houses exist, each capable of holding from a thousand to two as I have visited thousand persons, and them both day and night, on holidays and workdays. I can testify to the good business done by the management. Fortunes are being made out of the cinematograph. another generation, for although there may be In one theatre some popular Japanese novel is in China and Japan thrown on the screen, and as the lifelike scene twice the population compared to Europe, the economic value of the is acted a man with a book reads the story, the two is the very reverse and there is comparative. whole being intensely interesting. There is All the Government nothing objectionable in such a representation, little tourist traffic. interference in business that is so common in this but the same cannot be said of the other houses country has not saved two of the leading in which foreign pictures are exhibited. Here shipping companies, the T. K. K. and Osaka it may be said that the cinematograph is a Shosen Kaisha, from getting into deep water. perverter of. the truth and panderer to the taste. Outside these buildings are Despite the experience of the past few years lowest the latter company is now committed to the huge coloured prints or paintings depicting the scenes within, and these illustrations are expansion policy with six 6,000 ton steamers on
nauseous catalogue of blood and murder. hand, which are most likely to be a weight
The trade It must be said they are not exclusively foreign round the necks of shareholders. may come which will make these large steamers representations, for some deal with Japanese in. profitable, but at present most of them returncidents, quite as bloodthirsty, but it is to the It will take years to foreign specimens I wish to draw attention. from America in ballast.
Here is such a representation of foreign life recover lost ground. The O. S. K. holds a strong position in the domestic and China that must increase the low.opinion the mass of to have concentrated Japanes have always had of the foreigner. coasting trades, and attention on this trade should have been its This opinion, due to isolation, ignorance and prejudice, might be much modified by the policy instead of entering into direct com-
proper use of the cinematograph, but what sort petition with the T. K. K. and 'N. Y. K. in a business already overdone.
of representations are given? Scenes, specially acted for the cinematograph, of condensed with a mixture of antic love, villainy in which some well-dressed mannikin ex- cites the ridicule and contempt of a Japanese audience; freak photographs, where a railway train will double / up, fall into a river, and suddenly resume its proper position; the basest passions amidst the most effete luxury. things come from Paris, and the films I have seen are just as used at home, with explanations in English and French that no one in an And it Asakusa audience could understand. is more than probable that they can understand very little of the pictures, which is perhaps fortunate.
With regard to the affairs of the T.K.K., over four hundred shareholders met on Thursday. when Mr. Asano made a statement of the com- A committee of investigation pany's business. has cleared Mr. Asano of the imputation of having misused the funds of the company. At the meeting a shareholder criticised Mr. Asano for building a palatial private residence, when necess- the president replied that this was ary for the reception of foreign guests and others who have business relations with the company. The plague spot in Japanese business was here touched upon-the inability of a Japanese to do business in a business-like way; the ever-present atmosphere of bribery, be it in the way of social entertainment, geisha, etc., or in actual money giving. This cause will be found at the root of the misfortunes of most Japanese companies.
THE RAILWAY BOARD.
According to a long Peking dispatch to the Jiji, dated the 11th inst., the National Review, said to be a Chinese official organ published in English at Shanghai, contains a copy of telegraphic instructions sent to the various The railways of the country, having been put Chinese Ministers in Europe and America ex- under control of a department of the Govern. plaining China's attitude in the Antung-ment and by the public verdict not having been Mukden dispute. In this document it is claimed Japan is the real cause of the delay in the negotiations. After reading the document one can only come to the conclusion that if such instructions have really been sent to the Chinese Ministers abroad they will only serve to com- plicate the foreign view of what, after all, is a not very important question in itself. One country charges the other with lack of sincerity and the other retaliates with "you're another!' The whole of the negotiations are truly Oriental in their intricacy and petty sub terfuge. Japan's attitude is approved by England; she has diplomatic right on her side, and the power to inforce her demands. Under these circumstances she is going on with the work. If treaties are of any value, there has never been any question about the matter, but as the business in Europe and America has been considered a "crisis" the Tokyo Government will get all the more credit for coming out of it scatheless.
THE SHIPPING OUTLOOK.
Toyo Kisen Kaisha shares, 50 yen paid up, touched low-water mark during the week, being quoted at 13 yen. Reports of continuous losses and misfortunes have worked havoo with this stock, and one or two bright journals, acting on the policy of “hit him while he's down," have suggested another sugar scandal. This alarmist attitude is not pucommon after the experiences
improved by the process, are being wrapped closely in the official mantle. Despite frequent accidents, great and small, the revelations of certain mismanagement and corruption at stations, and of collusion between railway ser- Fants and transportation agencies, defects all crying for drastic remedy, it was recently reported that officials of the rank of stationmaster and upwards should be privileged to wear swords. This was one item in a series of official regulations, in which the rank of officials and many other things having little relation to the running of railways were set forth. The subject is indeed one fit for ridicule, when we take into considera- tion the mismanagement of the railways and the poverty of the railway equipment and stations, facts which strike such people as foreign tourists most painfully on landing in the country. Yet time is found to consider the important question whether the overworked and underpaid official, whose mightiest instrument is a pen, shall add to his dignity with a clanking sword! It is said that this idea has been abandoned, but surely the fact that it has been simmering in the brain of officialdom is the clearest proof of the unfitness of such people to conduct the railway business.
ASAKUSA AND THE CINEMATOGRAPH:
Asakusa Park, its Temple and show-places, is the great centre of attraction for the Edo-ko, its haven of delight for country people, and
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WHAT THE PUBLIC WANT.
These
Now if the Japanese public demanded these distorted pictures of foreign life, it would be little use arguing against them. But in gine cases out of ten the Japanese goes to the show simply to see the cinematograph at work with an open mind to see the moving picture, and his taste is as yet entirely undeveloped. But if he has any taste in the matter it is not for mis- representation, depravity, and distortion of life. To anyone who knows the Japanese, they are intensely interested in foreign countries, in their scenery, cities, buildings and people. Only one such moving picture have I seen at Asakusa, and that was of Niagara in winter-time, the grandeur and reality of which provoked the applause of the audience. Such interest is never aroused by a freak photograph, and positive repulsion is the feeling aroused in the average Japanese by ridiculously exaggerated love scenes. From beginning to end these shows are a very harmful misrepresentation of foreign life, for it is not foreign life. To my mind, a great opportunity to enlighten the mass of Japanese as to our respective countries is being missed. The cinematograph is the most popular of public entertainers to-day, and I believe that, even from a business point of view, nothing would pay so much as pictures true to life and giving the best of the life of the peoples in other countries. The Japanese are thirsting for 'such knowledge, and the instrument that is capable of doing so much in this direction; that could be an ambassa- dor of peace above all others, is prostituted to representations which, if they are not simply ridiculous and accepted as such, are representa- tive of only the very dregs of life.