The Coming Race Struggle.
DAWN IN THE ORIENT.
Captain Horton, late of Yokohama, Japan, who has just completed 20 years' service in command of the Imperial Japanese Mailboats (Nippon Yusen Kaisha) had some interesting observations to impart to a News reporter on the great Eastern question. "Speaking to an educated Parsee in India a little while ago," he said, "he told me that we are on the verge of another Indian Mutiny. Discontent under present-day conditions is so rife that the tilt of a hairbreadth would be sufficient to settle the fate of millions —perhaps Nations — who can tell? Japan and Russia are at the bottom of the trouble. By the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, in the terms of which England would lend her Navy in return for Japan's army to quell India — England has proclaimed her inability to hold India to the world. In Japan every man is a trained soldier, and Japan does not appreciate England's unpreparedness. I have no hesitation in saying the Anglo-Japanese Alliance will not be renewed when it expires in 1915.
"If the Bill for the exclusion of Japanese from the United States is passed by Congress, there will be trouble. The Japanese race is the most reckless and ambitious on the face of the earth. They fight with a fierceness and fanaticism utterly unknown to Western nations. With it is an honor and glory to be allowed to die for their country and Empire. The world does not realise Japan's strength. With the exception of Germany, she has the finest army in the world, and for its size there is nothing better than her Navy, which, too, is being rapidly extended, and is now constructed entirely in Japanese own shipbuilding yards. Now, Russia covets India; but Japan, like Alexander, covets the world!
"I would like to see a map of the world 100 years hence," continued Captain Horton. "I believe Japan will have the whole of the East, and part, at least, of the Southern Hemisphere. Her first move would be to the Philippines, thence to Thursday Island (where she is already firmly established) — that is the thin end of the wedge — and tending along the coast of Queensland. She would then go for the Sandwich Islands and Honolulu, where her subjects already form a trained army on the spot. Japan must colonise, and that in the near future, for she is already over-populated."
In speaking of the Japanese hatred of all foreigners, as well as the belief that the yellow races will finally prevail, and the extreme deceit and lack of honor among the nation taken as a whole, Captain Horton is merely emphasising the words of the Rev. G. H. McNeur, a missionary from China (interviewed by the writer in Auckland) who lectured on the same basis in the Dominion during 1903.
“The Japanese term for people outside their own countrymen,” continued the Captain, “is ‘Kitojin,’ which they will translate to you as ‘foreigner’ but the literal translation of which is 'hairy barbarian.’ The children are brought up from infancy to despise and hate all foreigners, one of the headlines in their school copybooks being — “Despise the Kitojin.’
“Credit in Japan is another name for swindle, the Japanese being past masters in the arts of hypocrisy and cunning. Of late years German traders have been endeavoring to establish themselves in Japan, and undercut British prices by giving credit — the result to themselves being invariably bankruptcy.
“As masters and rulers, the appalling cruelty and rapine of the Japanese in Korea, where murder and robbery constitute the law, is gradually leaking out to the world, though stringent measures have been used to prevent it. Some time ago an American missionary named Hulbert exposed the whole thing before Congress, but the matter was not followed up, lest complications should arise between the nations. The Canadian Government’s Commissioner for Trade stationed at Yokohama (whose sphere includes Korea) then applied to the Foreign Office in Japan for permission to investigate matters and report thereon. Every assistance was accorded him by the Japanese Government; the officials in Korea were carefully notified of his coming beforehand; he was taken in hand by them and shown the very little that could be favorable to Japan: the rest he never saw. Later, he became a great advocate for Japan of dealing dealing direct with America, Europe, and the British Empire; the result being that he was recalled by the Canadian Government, his presence being detrimental to European interests.
"The world does not know, and probably never will know, the frightful atrocities which were perpetrated by the Japanese at the taking of Port Arthur from the Chinese.
“Why do Europeans rave about Japan after visiting it The reasons are twofold — for the ladies the wondrous beauty of the Japanese silk stores, and for the men the unrestrained licentiousness of the Japanese women.”
Captain Horton (who is staying at “Bonny Glen” while in Te Aroha) also had a few caustic remarks to make about New Zealand. “I had intended to settle in this country,” he said, “but the inflated land values and unworkable restrictions, to say nothing of the dearth of farm and domestic labour, have caused me to change my mind. Living is also expensive; and I consider the taxation consequent on your Government’s unrestricted borrowing policy and highly paid officialdom, is ruinous. I would also like to remark that you are spoiling Rotorua for tourists by the incessant and annoying levying of small tolls upon them for all the sights — a form of petty extortion which will inevitably redound to the discredit of the place. I think the people of New Zealand are some of the nicest I have ever met, their kindness of heart and freedom from restraint having particularly impressed me, and I greatly regret that, owing to the causes mentioned, I have been obliged to book my passage for England a fortnight hence.” -Te Aroha News, 22/2/1910.
PERSONAL MATTERS
A Paris press cable says that M. Isvolsky, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, lunched with King Edward.
Sir Joseph Ward was fifty-four years of age on Tuesday. He received a large congratulatory messages.
Captain Horton arrived in Nelson this morning. He intends spending some little time here. -Nelson Evening Mail, 28/4/1910.
CAPTAIN HORTON
The death occurred suddenly of Captain Horton who has been a resident of Nelson for many years past, having come to settle here after retirement from the sea. For forty year's the late Captain Horton was in the employ of the Japanese Shipping Company, and was in charge of transports during the Russo-Japanese war and also at other times during trouble in the East. He had received three decorations from the Japanese Government. -Nelson Evening Mail, 30/4/1934.
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