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.

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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

Baseball in Manchuria. The students of Japanese primary schools in Manchuria contesting for championship

from both Japan and Europe. There was one thing needed above all else-a firm hand to evolve order out of chaos, and in the shortest time possible. Kid gloves and a collection of moral maxims would have had about as much effect on the disorderly elements there as a pint of skimmed milk in the taming of a jungle tiger.

Safety for life and property is the one thing without which no human society can prosper-without which neither commerce nor productive industries can be. Adequate protection for the lives and property of the people in the leased territory and through the railway zone was first given under the soldier's administration of the leased territory. There were filling the newspapers in those trying days many American criticisms and protests against the Japanese administration of Manchuria. They came mostly from some British and American commercial interests which were losing their Manchurian trade to the Japanese and from some of the American consular officials who were out there looking after American trade interests. But they were few and feeble compared to the Japanese complaints which rose up in and out of Manchuria. In the nature of things when any human power military or otherwise, but especially military, tries to straighten out a tangle such as Japan inherited from Russia in Manchuria, there is bound to be a lot of snapping of threads-perfectly good and proper threads along with the knotty ones. In this best of all the possible human worlds that cannot be helped. A soldier's boots are unnecessarily awkward at all times and almost in all lands, for some reasons not quite as evident as their patriotism or their decorations. They have the gift of stepping on people's toes with enthusiasm and with wide catholicity. Such was the case with the military administration of the Kwantung Leased Territory. It treaded on toes which were entitled to better treatment, sometimes.

SOUTH MANCHURIA RAILWAY ZONE FAVORED

BY CHINESE

After admitting all this, let us point out a few pertinent facts which stick out like festival lanterns on a black night. In March, 1908, there were less than 12,400 Chinese and 17,200 Japanese in the Railway Zone, a total of 29,500 people. Ten years later, in 1918, there were 29,717 families and 129,163 people. The increase was mostly among the Chinese. In 1920, there were 103,043 Chinese and only 71,643 Japanese. The increase of the Chinese population was more than eightfold in twelve years. Outside of the Railway Zone, the population of Manchuria increased less than 50 per cent. in ten years. Why this rush into the Zone?

One of the most impressive and striking things I saw in my wanderings up and down Manchuria was the number of important Chinese merchants making their headquarters in the Railway Zone. It was not through mere accident that this happened. Accidents of this sort never happen to Chinese merchants. When they moved from their old quarters in the old walled city into the new Railway Zone there was a reason back of their action somewhat more powerful than a dynamite blast.

There is another thing about the Railway Zone which does not call for Diogenes' lantern or a modern microscope to find out: namely whenever either Chinese officials or Chinese capitalists in Manchuria take a notion to put their money into real estate, they invariably take their first look in the direction of the Railway Zone.

Perhaps there are more reasons than one back of all these facts. Just one of them, however, is quite enough: the bandits. Other reasons are more or less secondary. As late as October 4th, 1924, Manchurian papers were full of the story of the bandit raid near Kaiyuan, an important historic walled city, 62 miles to the north of