years the annual increase of population did not exceed 1.3 per cent. In Germany, between 1905 and 1910, where the race is most prolific and the economic conditions for the growth of population have been nearly ideal, the annual increase was only 1.36 per cent. Such manipulation of figures with regard to the Korean population brought a vigorous protest from Dr. Sengman Rhee, the editor of the Korean Pacific Magazine.

66

Genetically, the Korean people have been a static race for several hundred years," wrote Dr. Rhee. "Since the Japanese occupation of the country they were put under severe economic strain. They were driven out of former occupations to make room for the incoming Japanese. Hundreds of native firms went bankrupt, because they were unable to meet the Japanese competitors backed by the administration. More than three hundred thousand Koreans emigrated to China since Korea lost her identity as a nation. It is a sociological law that in hard times people postpone marriage and the birth-rate drops. And the Korean people are no exception to this rule. There is all the reason to believe that the Korean population during the last five years would have decreased rather than increased. Although I have no definite proof to make a positive statement, yet it is very "Statesman's Year Book, 1916.

probable that the Japanese, with their characteristic foresight in deception, gave out an under-estimate in 1912 with the view of increasing it in a few years. The traditional population of Korea was twenty million, and it could not have been any less than seventeen million at the time of annexation.”*

"In the East, in perhaps a greater degree than elsewhere," writes Mr. Millard, the editor of the China Press and the author of many important books on the Far Eastern problems, "statistics often are prepared to sustain an hypothesis. This is especially true, at the present time, of some statistics which relate to the economic and fiscal situation of Japan.'

998

2. GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN FOREIGN LANDS What is left undone, in the way of publicity, by the press and official publications is accomplished by the semi-official agencies in the West. From the Japanese bureau of information in New York, or from the one in San Francisco, an American can get information on any matter concerning Japan; but it is the strict policy of the bureau to give out only what the Japanese Government wishes to have believed in the West.

'Korean Pacific Magazine, editorial, October, 1916. "The Far Eastern Question," Introduction.

"The official title of the New York Bureau is "East and West News Bureau." It is maintained for promoting a

The Japan Society of New York is another medium of dissemination of everything Japanese. It was organized in May, 1907. At present it boasts an active membership of over a thousand people including such eminent men as Seth Low, Hamilton Holt, William Elliot Griffis, Elbert H. Gary, and Jokichi Takamine. American libraries are flooded with the bulletins and pamphlets of the Japan Society, all distributed gratuitously.

In addition to these sources of propaganda, there are paid lecturers and writers who take every opportunity to placate the Western opinion and present Japan in the most favourable light. Although scholars like Inazo Nitobe have travelled in the United States as professorial lecturers, in reality they have told their college audiences in America what the Japanese Government or newspaper could not publish without betraying its motive." The Japanese scholar is, in reality, a co-worker with and a mouthpiece of his government. In 1916, when Japan deliberately attempted to veto the contract to repair the Grand Canal in Shantung,

better understanding between America and Japan. Dr. T. Iyenaga, a professorial lecturer at Columbia University, is the Director of the Bureau. The one in San Francisco is known as the "Pacific Press Bureau," headed by K. K. Kawakami.

10 A collection of lectures by Dr. Nitobe, "The Japanese Nation-Its Land, Its People and Its Life," distributed gratuitously by the Japan Society, New York.

granted by the Chinese Government to an American corporation, and failed, the wellknown Director of the East and West News Bureau, Dr. T. Iyenaga, lost no time in offering an apologetic excuse for his government:

"If it is true that Japan made any protest to the railway scheme and the reconstruction in China of the Grand Canal to be undertaken by American capital, I am inclined to think that it is simply to put on record the priority of Japan's rights in an undertaking of that kind within the Province of Shantung. . . So far as Japan is concerned, I am sure she welcomes the development of China's resources by whomsoever it is undertaken, for such development will certainly tend to enhance the purchasing power of the Chinese, which in turn will react favourably on the Japanese trade in the Chinese market." "

The war-ridden attention of America was somewhat diverted in the fall of 1916 by a new set of demands made on China by Japan, known as the "Chengchiatun demands," which the Peking Gazette characterized as "A Foot-note to the Twenty-one Demands."" It was believed that the trouble was concocted by the Japanese military authorities in China in order to furnish a cause for such demands by the Tokyo Govern

"Japan Society Bulletin, No. 35, p. 67, November 30, 1916. "Peking Gazette, September 9, 1916.

ment. After the fall of the Okuma Ministry, Premier Terauchi and his associates withdrew the demands as a matter of expediency in dealing with the Chinese. At present, they thought, a lenient policy toward China would be more beneficial to Japan than military bullying. This furnished a golden opportunity to bring Japan out once again into the limelight of American public opinion—to show the West the splendid spirit of sacrifice and the magnanimity of Japan. Japan, as a nation, never hesitates to admit its mistakes, if there be any, and rectify its wrongs,

-so the Japanese publicists in this country would tell us. The following is a paragraph from the pen of K. K. Kawakami, the best known Japanese author and editor in America, on the withdrawal of the "Chengchiatun demands."

"However disagreeable such admission may be to Japan, we must frankly confess that many of the recent troubles, resulting from the contact of Japanese and Chinese upon Chinese soil, have been caused by China ronin (professional Japanese agitators in China) as well as by unauthorized actions of army men over whom the civilian premier had only inadequate power.'

99 13

Had the cause and nature of the demands not been known in America and had the Tokyo Government sustained the demands, Mr. KawaReview of Reviews, February, 1917, p. 179.