Manchurian Insurgents and Russian Occupation
There is published in Yokohama, Japan, the Japan Weekly Advertiser, an English newspaper issued for the benefit of the English-speaking residents of that city. In a recent issue it prints some valuable information taken from a genuine Japanese newspaper, the Asahi, throwing light upon the Manchurian question. The Advertiser says: “The Asahi, commenting upon Russia’s relations with Manchuria, brings out a point which we have not heretofore noted in discussions upon the diplomatic situation. It directs attention to the Manchurian insurgents as constituting a prime factor in that situation. These insurgents stand in very much the same relation to the people of Manchuria as do the Formosan native raiders to the inhabitants of the latter island. Manchuria suffers from them greatly, and the people naturally seek the protection of Russia. The existence of the marauders, to put down which China is powerless, furnishes Russia with an all-sufficient and perennial excuse for occupation of the province. Under these circumstances it would therefore be fatuous for Japan to look upon such occupation as in any sense temporary.” Those best informed state that “the Japanese know more about conditions in the far East than all the rest of mankind combined,” because “they are true Orientals, while the Russians are not even half Oriental, and the English, Germans, French, and Americans are not Oriental at all.”