churian line which Japan had received from Russia through the Portsmouth Treaty (Appendix 18). Mr. Harriman's idea was to take over the South Manchurian line from Japan and the Chinese Eastern line from Russia and form them into a link in his world-chain of transportation-an economic imperialism worthy of a great American railway potentate. It made the militant imperialism of Russia in its halcyon days look like an opening stanza of a nursery rime by comparison. The stupendous scope of the thing, the romance of it all, must have appealed to the Japanese statesmen of the day. If Mr. Harriman's scheme had gone through the command and control of a world-circling transportation system would have fallen into the hands of the United States. That meant something when the railways were proving themselves mightier Empire-builders than any conquerors known to history. A few days after Mr. Harriman had left the shores of Japan Baron Komura reached Tokyo, back from Portsmouth. Premier Katsura showed him a copy of the Harriman memorandum. "But this is not in tune with Article VI of the Portsmouth Treaty," said Komura. "The thing is not ours— yet. China's consent is standing between it and us. Anything might happen between the cup and the lip." Of course these are not the exact words of Komura, but they paint his meaning pretty accurately. The premier saw the point. A cable message was sent to San Francisco to catch Mr. Harriman as soon as he landed there. It advised him that the deal was off, for the time being at any rate. Baron Komura went over to the continent to get the "consent of the Chinese Government." When he returned to Tokyo with the Treaty of Peking of December 22d, 1905, in which China had given her consent for the transfer of the Russian railway line and Russian lease to Japan, he found a decided change in the Tokyo atmosphere over the Harriman scheme. It has never been revived since. In addition to the Peking Treaty and an additional agreement, which were published at the time, Baron Komura was reported to have brought back with him still another agreement, which was "to be kept strictly secret in deference to the desire of the Chinese Government." The text of the Peking Treaty and the additional agreement and a summary of the alleged secret agreement are given in Appendices 19, 20, and 21. JAPANESE TRADERS AT THE HEELS OF THE While the Russians were the masters of Manchuria Japanese met not only a frigid reception there, but practically a locked door. Russians could not see much difference between the Japanese, the British, and the bubonic plague: they had no enthusiasm for taking any of them into their fond embrace. But the Japanese had become the greatest buyers of Manchurian products since the days that followed the Chinese War. Japan was taking more beans and bean cake than any other country at the time when the Russians entered upon their Manchurian adventure. There was another thing, too. The post-war boom following the Chinese scrap brought on inevitable years of depression. There was over-production in Japan. She had to find an outlet somewhere, everywhere. Manchuria was one of the nearest foreign markets. Moreover, the fact that Japan bought so much in Manchuria made the country a natural channel through which the Japanese traders tried to push their wares. To pass into Manchuria under the Russian influence one had to have either a permit from the Russian military office or a friendly nod from the officials of the Chinese Eastern Railway. These, as hinted above, were the rar est commodities in the possession of the Japanese. In spite of that, however, and as a matter of fact, a number of shrewd Japanese merchants used to make their way into different parts of Russian Manchuria. The fact that there was quite a number of these invaders shows more pointedly than anything else how persistent and eager were Japanese merchants to push their way into the Manchurian markets. When the Japanese army began to drive the Russians north, the Japanese merchants crowded in at its heels. At one time the Japanese population at the port of Yingkou was reported to be close to 20,000-which at the time was an astounding figure. They were of all sorts: not a few of them mere bold adventurers. They caused the Japanese army régime no end of trouble. From that day on for years afterward, to this very day in fact, the Japanese authorities have been exceedingly strict with them. While American and other anti-Japanese propagandists are painting in flaming colors the picture of the Japanese authorities nursing, supporting, pushing Japanese merchants into Manchuria by all sorts of unfair means and at the expense of all American and other foreign commercial interests, the actual truth of the matter is that the Japanese merchants have been kicking loud and long against their step-fatherly treatment at the hand of their own authorities. Japanese cotton textiles drove out the American goods there to a large extent: that is a fact. It is not through governmental partialities, though. Two causes accounted for that amply: Japanese goods were cheaper and served Manchurian needs quite as well as the higher-priced American goods. And the American exporters did not work for the trade there one tenth as much as did the Japanese merchants and manufacturers. And this is not saying anything about the incomparably shorter distance the Japanese mills are from Manchuria than the Ameri can mills. It meant quicker delivery; savings in freight charges. It would have been a miracle if the Japanese textile had failed to displace the American product in Manchurian markets. Just why American writers on the subject invariably obey the occult edict to forget these most natural and apparent of all causes and have to dig in search of some underhanded method of the Japanese authorities in Manchuria to explain the thing, is an eternal puzzle to the Japanese. THE KWANTUNG GOVERNMENT-GENERAL Two important steps marked the entry of Nippon into South Manchuria: the establishment of the GovernmentGeneral of Kwantung leased territory, and the South Manchuria Railway. The story of the great railway company deserves an entire chapter to itself. The Imperial ordinance sanctioning its organization and the articles of its incorporation are given in Appendix 22. Article 3 of the Imperial Ordinance, No. 196, governing the organization of the Government-General of Kwantung (the leased territory at the tip end of the Liaotung Peninsula) says: "The Governor-General shall be a general or a lieutenant-general of the Imperial Army." This put the affairs of the Manchurian leased territory and the general supervision and protection of the South Manchuria Railway Company into the hand of General Viscount Oshima, the first Governor-General of Kwantung. The military government has been often denounced by many a foreign critic. A Japanese writer actually apologized for it. All that, of course, is sheer tommyrot. When Japan succeeded Russia in Manchuria disorders inherited from the war time still prevailed over the land. Outside the leased territory and the railway zone mounted bandits had a free and easy time of it. Even the railway zone was packed with lawless elements |