CO129-457 - Public Offices - 1919 — Page 621

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both officials and others, take the view that the changes were unnecessary in a Government so beneficent and success-

ful and that in any case they will be quite without practical effect. In the former opinion, no disinterest- ed and careful observer could, I think, agree with them. In many respects the administration of Formosa is worthy of the highest praise, but the same could have been said of Corea, and the evils that have made of the Coreans a discontented race exist to no less extent in Formosa.

The difference is that the people of this Island are quite inarticulate politically and the only foreigners

who know the true state of affairs are a small handful of British missionaries who consider (and I think wisely)

that their work can best be accomplished in silence. As to the purely nominal nature of the reforms, however, I am entirely of the Japanese opinion and think it doubtful whether they are even intended to have practical

effect on the administration.

Turning to a detailed considerations of the reforms,

the first and most important alteration is the removal

of the provision whereby the Governor-General had to

be either a full General or a full Admiral on the active

list, thereby making it possible for a civilian to be appointed to the office. At the same time it is laid

down that, in the event of the Governor-General being

a military officer, he shall also hold the appointment

of Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in Formosa. The

Governor-General (when a civil official) may call upon

the commanders of the military or naval forces for armed

assistance should he deem it necessary for the preserv-

ation of public peace and order. There is 8180 a

further provision empowering the Commander-in-Chief to

employ