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 THE 
 
 A __ PROBLEM OF ASIA 
 
 | A LECTURE DELIVERED 
 
 G. D. WESSELITSKY 
 
 BEFORE THE CENTRAL ASIAN SOCIETY OF 
 LONDON, 
 
 JUNE 1ST, 1904, 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 SIR DONALD MACKENZIE- WALLACE, 
 
 K.C.I. E., 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 S. SIDDERS & CO., 17 & 19, BALI. STREET, 
 KKNSINOTON, W. 
 
 1904.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I have been requested by M. de Wesselitsky, whom I 
 have long known as the able and universally respected 
 correspondent of the Novoe Vremya in London, to write a 
 few lines of introduction to a lecture which he delivered lately 
 on " The Problem of Asia " ; and I gladly comply with his 
 request, because I believe his views are deserving of care- 
 ful attention. They may be accepted or rejected, but they 
 should not be overlooked. We are at present entering on 
 a new phase of what the Germans call Weltpolitik, and it 
 is certain that in the political combinations of the near 
 future Japan will be an important factor. Is that young 
 vigorous State to be cordially received into the great family 
 of the civilised nations, or is it to be regarded as a danger- 
 ous enemy of the family, so far as the Far East is con- 
 cerned ? When we have dismissed as a harmless bogey the 
 Yellow Peril in its original shape, we have still to examine 
 it in other forms. Granted that there is no danger of 
 Mongol Hordes overrunning and conquering Europe, is it 
 not possible that a yellow race, by adopting the products of 
 European civilisation, may oppose successfully the aggres- 
 sive tendencies of the European nations in the Far East ? 
 In that case what attitude should these nations adopt? 
 Should they combine to maintain by force of arms what 
 they consider their civilising mission ? Or should they limit 
 their pretensions in such a way as to leave room for the 
 civilising activity of a young Oriental nationality which 
 may some day raise the cry of " Asia for the Asiatics ! ". 
 The former course was adopted by Russia, France and 
 Germany, when they compelled Japan to relinquish the 
 conquests which she had made in Manchuria during her 
 war with China, and when the present war is terminated 
 the question will again come up for decision. 
 
 We naturally feel inclined to turn away from the 
 thorny problems which we would gladly bequeath to future 
 generations intact, but unfortunately we are very near to 
 the parting of the ways. As to which way we should 
 choose I refrain from expressing any opinion. All I wish 
 
 2116751
 
 to say is that common prudence suggests our looking a 
 little ahead and considering the burning question in the Far 
 East in its broader aspects. The war which is at present 
 raging is not a mere struggle between two rival Powers 
 for a bit of territory coveted by both. It is the beginning 
 of a much greater struggle in which all nations having 
 Eastern possessions and Eastern ambitions will be com- 
 pelled, sooner or later, however reluctantly, to take part. 
 Anything which prevents us from shutting our eyes to dis- 
 agreeable realities is to be welcomed, and it is for this 
 reason that I venture, without endorsing all M. de 
 Wesselitsky's views, to recommend them to the attention 
 of the British public. On one point, at least, I cordially 
 agree with him, that the preponderating feature of the 
 situation in Asia is the rivaly of England and Russia, and 
 that the interests of Europe and of Asia alike demand that 
 this friction should cease. 
 
 DONALD MACKENZIE WALLACE. 
 2jrd July, 1904.
 
 THE PROBLEM OF ASIA. 
 
 An address delivered by Mr. Gabriel de Wesselitsky 
 before the Central Asian Society of London, June 1st, 
 1904. Rt. Hon. Sir Alfred Lyall, G.C.I. E., in the chair. 
 
 I AM fully conscious of the great honour of addressing 
 you on so momentous an issue, but not less conscious 
 of the manifold difficulties of the task, and of the in- 
 adequacy of my power to fulfil it. I would never have 
 dreamed of attempting it if, in listening a month ago to 
 our Chairman's lucid paper on the situation in Central and 
 Eastern Asia, I had not felt that a suggestion of a friendly 
 understanding with Russia from the English side ought to 
 be followed by a response from our own ; and on receiving 
 Sir Alfred's kind request to address you here, in spite of 
 professional work taxing my energies to the utmost, I did 
 not hesitate to accept it. I would have preferred to listen, 
 with you, to a more competent advocate than myself; but 
 unfortunately there was no one else available who, while 
 pursuing an independent career, had made politics his life- 
 study. I must caution you, however, against attaching to 
 my words more importance than they deserve They are 
 only a free expression of my own views, for which no one 
 else is responsible. They are, naturally, identical with 
 those contained in the London telegrams and letters to the 
 Novoe Vreinya of St. Petersburg, yet they in no way 
 engage that journal. For in one respect at least there is 
 more freedom in a Russian newspaper than in any other. 
 No strict unity of opinion is insisted upon, and permanent 
 contributors have a wide latitude. Provided that they are 
 all inspired by the same considerations of national interest, 
 they may differ as to the means of attaining it.
 
 Sir Alfred Lyall sees the predominating feature of the 
 situation in Asia in the rivalry of England and Russia ; 
 and he believes that the interests of Europe and Asia 
 alike demand that this friction should cease. Our Chair- 
 man expects from the present war a turning-point in Asiatic 
 politics affecting, not merely Russia, but all Europe and 
 particularly England. I am happy to be able to endorse 
 those views, only I consider this war but one link in 
 a chain of developments of which it is the most striking, 
 yet not the most unexpected, nor even the most im- 
 portant. 
 
 Two other white nations the United States and 
 Germany have become Asiatic powers, and represent in- 
 calculable elements in the situation. But the changes 
 introduced by European nations are overshadowed by the 
 changes in the Asiatics themselves ; the awakening of the 
 peoples of Asia. It is impossible to speak of it without 
 mentioning Japan. I am in no danger of forgetting that I 
 am addressing her allies. Even if it were not so, Japan 
 would still have a claim on my courteous consideration. 
 National policy as well as national pride, forbid me 
 to disparage an adversary. But it is no disparagement 
 of the Japanese to disagree with their over-zealous 
 friends who pretend that they are not Asiatics at all, but 
 a race apart, a remnant of the population of a sunken con- 
 tinent. Race, language, culture and traditions make them 
 Asiatics ; and it would rob Japan of her strongest claim to 
 the world's respect if she were dissociated from Asia. 
 Those who say that the Japanese cannot be Asiatics because 
 they are active, progressive and efficient, ignore the fact that 
 all those qualities have belonged to other Asiatic peoples for 
 thousands of years. The deciphering of cuneiform in- 
 scriptions has revealed a condition of things in the past 
 which, judged by the same standard, ought to be declared 
 quite un-Asiatic. We must not forget also that the pro- 
 gress of the Arab culture revived the Byzantine learning 
 in the tenth century, and that the Arabic university of 
 Cordova became a model for that of Paris. Our contempt 
 for Asiatics is based only on our acquaintance with the 
 Mongol and Turanian tribes which established themselves 
 on the ruins of ancient and highly civilised empires and 
 have stereotyped the decadence which they produced. 
 
 Japan's insular position permitted her to escape that 
 latest and most baneful conquest ; and the long preserva-
 
 5 
 
 tion of her feudal regime provided her with excellent ma- 
 terial for national expansion. The Samurai, who had, dur- 
 ing tht internal wars and rivalries of the Daimios, developed 
 great military, diplomatic and political talents, are apply- 
 ing them now to the service of national greatness, with the 
 same passionate loyalty which they used to display while 
 serving their feudal lords. The proficiency of the Japanese 
 in naval and military matters has been much exalted ; but 
 little justice has been rendered to some of their other 
 achievements. Since the days of the Baghdad Caliphate, 
 when the Arabs were the only great travellers and ex- 
 plorers, no Asiatics had visited foreign lands for the purpose 
 of study. For the last thirty years the Japanese have not 
 only travelled widely and observed with keenness, but have 
 applied what they learned and perfected it still further. 
 Hand in hand with their studies went the propagation of 
 sympathies for their own nation, and her aims, which, in 
 two great white countries, at least, achieved singular success. 
 Unnoticed by Europeans, but even more important in their 
 consequences, were their travels and sojourns on the con- 
 tinent of Asia, whose peoples began in their turn to visit 
 Japan and to study there. Thus personal intercouse, to- 
 gether with the prominent political role of Japan, have done 
 more than centuries of European trade and conquest to 
 shake off the lethargy into which the peoples of Asia were 
 sunk. 
 
 Speaking of the relations of the Japanese with other 
 Asiatics, I must expect to be accused of trying to conjure 
 up the bogie of the Yellow Peril. It has been lately 
 the daily task of Japanese statesmen and of their white 
 sympathisers to ridicule and to discredit in advance 
 any reference to such dangers. I will endorse their denial 
 of a specifically Yellow movement. "Yellow" and 
 " Mongol " are not the watchwords which rally Asiatic 
 now. And I do not believe in the existence, for a well- 
 organised and self-conscious nation, of any terror-striking 
 peril ; except only that of closing her eyes on the realities 
 good or bad, of her inner and outward situation. As for 
 the Japanese propaganda amongst white as well as coloured 
 nations, I consider it to be the work of ardent patriots, 
 and I do not see in it anything which they had reason 
 to deny or be ashamed of. Nay, I admire the ingenuity of 
 their means, and their self-sacrificing devotion to their cause. 
 
 I hear from English sources all the information 
 contained in this address is derived from such that it is
 
 customary in Japan for young men of rank and fortune to 
 undertake the hard and servile work of coolies in order 
 better to serve their country. Taking advantage of the 
 similarity of features, common to all peoples of the Mongol 
 stock, they go to Canton, grow pigtails there, learn the 
 local dialect and customs ; then on to Pekin, where they 
 figure as Chinamen from the South. These Crypto- 
 Japanese join the staff of Chinese newspapers, and enter 
 the secret societies which are daily growing in importance, 
 and direct their policy to serve their own objects. They 
 support the overt propaganda of Japanese ideas which is 
 permeating China ; and these combined influences have 
 brought that vast empire under the moral sway of Japan. 
 Indeed she might now precipitate China into a war pregnant 
 for the latter with the gravest dangers; and is prevented 
 from so doing only by consideration of the inconveniences 
 which would arise therefrom for herself. 
 
 Europeans are aware of this influence over China, but 
 believe it to be limited to China alone. That is a great 
 mistake. Since the war of 1895, Japan is the refuge of 
 malcontents from all parts of Asia and the focus of their 
 activity. The Filipinos' revolt against Spain has been 
 fostered by Japanese pensions to Aguinaldo and other chiefs, 
 and, but for the Spanish-American War, the Philippines 
 might now have Asiatic masters. Refugees from those 
 islands, as well as from the Hawaian group, are receiving 
 allowances from Japan, and the same practice has been long 
 in force regarding the Malays, Many of the latter have 
 been adopted by the Japanese, and with the help of their 
 new relatives have returned to their own country and 
 attained a prominent position there. Thus a refugee from 
 Natuna, a group of islands near the West coast of Borneo, 
 who had become a Japanese, succeeded in making himself 
 the Sultan of one-half of that Archipelago. Whether 
 rumours of an alliance between this Chief and Japan be 
 true or not, their intimate relations are beyond all doubt. 
 Two Japanese cruisers, now used as training ships, the 
 Kongo and Hiwei, are often seen in Natuna, from which 
 they make frequent voyages to the Malacca and Sunda 
 Straits. The inhabitants of the adjacent shores are won 
 by presents and propaganda to the cause of Japan, whose 
 influence extends to many of the semi-dependent Malay 
 Sultanates, nominally under Dutch sovereignty. 
 
 Since 1895 Japan's influence is firmly established in 
 Siam. Two Japanese magistrates act as legal advisers of-
 
 the King. Japanese officers are instructors in the army, 
 most valuable concessions have been granted to Japanese ; 
 a high Japanese school and a branch of the Panasiatic 
 Society have been created at Bangkok ; and the intimacy 
 between the two courts has been consummated by the visit 
 of the Crown of Siam to Tokio in 1903. 
 
 The scientific curiosity of the Japanese was also at- 
 tracted by French Indo-China. For a number of years it 
 was visited by military and commercial missions from 
 Japan, which examined roads and rivers, ports and 
 markets, and these were discontinued only when they were 
 discouraged by the French authorities. Yet a considerable 
 residue was left behind bytraders and commercial travellers, 
 Buddist priests or teachers, among whom French investi- 
 gators have detected many reservists, non-commissioned 
 officers and officers of the Japanese army. A young and 
 eloquent French writer, Henri Moreau, has voiced the 
 apprehensions felt in French colonial circles concerning 
 Japan's views on that great French colony, the practical 
 fulfilment of which is of course adjourned for the present. 
 
 The greatest historical and philosophical interest is 
 presented by Japan's influence in British India. It did not 
 originate in the Japanese propaganda. It is the work of 
 the British Press, from which Indians learned the victories 
 won from China by Japan, of whose existence they were 
 hardly aware. But it was the praises by the English 
 papers ot her troops during the Boxer' troubles that en- 
 deared Japan to the heart of all Indians. At that epoch 
 Anglo-Indian papers began sending correspondents to 
 Tokio, and Indians became frequent visitors to Japan. 
 Traders and ex-Samurai also went to India ; and though 
 they had not the same motives there, they used the same 
 methods as in China. They frequently disguised them- 
 selves as Nepalese, whose Mongoloid type permits the 
 Japanese to pass as such. The absence of any political 
 object for this conduct points to a great force of habit, if 
 not at an excess of zeal It is interesting to note how 
 much of their power religious differences have lost in Asia. 
 If the Buddists were the first sectaries in India whom the 
 Japanese approached, they found through them access to 
 Brahmins and even to Mussulmans. Japanese, pretending 
 to be Nepalese, have been recognised by Englishmen,
 
 who know both Japan and Nepal, at the Court of the 
 Nizam of Hyderabad and at other Indian Mussulman 
 Courts. 
 
 A sensation was produced in India last year by the 
 arrival of a group of Japanese from Afghanistan. The 
 alleged object of this journey thither was to visit the 
 remains of an ancient Buddhist shrine at Bamian. In fact, 
 they had passed several years at Cabul, and their chief was 
 in high favour with the Amir. His name was Tani, and 
 he was a member of a princely family, related to the 
 Mikado, and high priest of the Chief Buddhist temple at 
 Tokio. It seems that these pilgrims were not exclusively 
 occupied with the contemplation of the Bamian ruins, for 
 soon after their arrival in Cabul, Afghans began to travel 
 to Japan ; and intimate relations were established between 
 the two peoples. Only yesterday I had the information 
 that the Amir recommended to the consideration of his 
 Diwan the study of the Japanese constitution, in which he 
 sees the cause of the firm cohesion of the Japanese State. 
 He would like to see the Chiefs of the Afghan tribes re- 
 nounce their privileges, as the Daimios did their power ; 
 and the tribes themselves contribute as substantially to the 
 needs of the Afghan State as is the case with the provinces 
 of Japan. 
 
 Other Japanese went to Persia and made valuable 
 friendships there. 'It is reported that an informal Japanese 
 mission is at present at Teheran, and a similar Persian mis- 
 sion at Tokio. Many have been the efforts of Japan to be- 
 friend Turkey, and several Japanese have even embraced 
 Islam. The Sultan took their conversion so seriously to heart 
 that he sent a steamer with two Pashas on an extraordinary 
 mission to Japan, which was escorted back by two Japanese 
 cruisers. Turco-Japanese relations might have acquired great 
 importance if the Germans, who favoured them at first, had 
 not become jealous of the Japanese, and succeeded in 
 ousting them from Turkey. Last year Japanese were 
 noticed in Syria, and were said to be active in all Arab 
 Countries. A month ago two Japanese were reported to 
 be travelling in Bulgaria and Macedonia, studying the 
 
 Balkan question. 
 
 i 
 
 The current of political missionaries from Japan 
 towards all parts of Asia called forth a counter-stream 
 of adepts towards Japan, and Tokio has become the moral
 
 capital of Asia, the Mecca of Panasiaticism. Mr. Stephen 
 England, one of the Daily Mail's special correspondents 
 in Tokio, himself an enthusiastic friend of Japan and writ- 
 ing in a decidedly pro-Japan organ, speaks of the statesmen 
 and princes from all the countries of Asia who have been 
 coming to Tokio from 1902 to 1904. He says that he 
 could " give a long list of notable men representing all the 
 East who have been conferring with the leaders of Japan." 
 At the same time Japanese schools, colleges and universities 
 were admitting hundreds of scholars from the mainland of 
 Asia. At present at the Tokio university and some high 
 schools alone there are 108 Indians, 32 Nepalese and 400 
 Chinese, besides several Siamese, Burmese, Afghans and 
 Per.'ians. Considering that the curriculum is couched in a 
 language which cannot be of practical use to the students 
 in their future careers, their presence there is a solid proof" 
 of their own and their parents' devotion to the ideal of 
 Asiatic unity. 
 
 Besides a number of local associations there are two 
 great political societies comprising all the zealous partizans 
 of the movement. One of them is called To-a-Dobunkai (One 
 Script Society), whose members include all who use the 
 literary Chinese language, i.e., the cultured Chinese, Japanese, 
 Koreans, Siamese, Burmese, Annamites, all belonging to 
 the Mongolian race. The other society, Dojin-Kai 
 (Philanthropic Society), is still more important, for 
 it admits all Asiatics, and has particularly a very large 
 proportion of upper-class Indian members. The meetings 
 of this society, held at the Nobles' Club of Tokio, which 
 receives illustrious strangers into its midst, were the 
 occasion of speeches which even the Japan Mail, a 
 semi-official Japanese organ in the English language, 
 blamed as imprudent and alarming. I do not wish to dwell 
 on that matter, and must refer those interested in it to the 
 Japan Mail itself, to the Yelloiv Whirlwind, by Mr. S. 
 England in the Dail Mail; and to Mr. F. J. Norman's 
 letters in the Spectator of February and March last. A 
 report reached me yesterday, which I mention in the hope 
 of seeing it rectified, if untrue, by someone of those present 
 here, namely, that a Maharaja whose part in the proceedings 
 of the Dojin Kai, and in the Panasiatic movement in general, 
 had attracted much attention, has been requested to return 
 to his State, but preferred to remain in Japan. 
 
 You find the inspiration of Modern Japan, says Mr. 
 S. England, in a nutshell, written in The Ideals of the East,
 
 IO 
 
 by Kakasu Okakura, the most renowned writer of the 
 present generation in Japan. The following extract is the 
 most characteristic : '' Asia is one. The Himalayas divide, 
 only to accentuate, two mighty civilisations, the Chinese 
 with its communism of Confucins, and the Indian with its 
 individualism of the Vedas. But not even the snowy 
 barrier can interrupt for one moment that broad expense 
 of love for the ultimate and the universal which is the 
 common thought and inheritance of every Asiatic race." 
 
 " If Asia be one, it is also true that the Asiatic races 
 form a single mighty web. Arab chivalry, Persian poetry, 
 Chinese ethics, and Indian thought, all speak of a single 
 ancient Asiatic peace, in which there grew up a common 
 life, bearing in different regions different characteristic 
 blossoms, but nowhere capable of a hard-and-fast dividing 
 line. Islam may be described as Confucianism on horse- 
 back, sword in hand; and Buddhism, that great ocean of 
 idealism in which merge all the river systems of Eastern 
 Asiatic thought, is coloured not only by the water of the 
 Ganges, for the Tartaric nations have made their genius also 
 its tributaries." 
 
 " It has been, however, the great privilege of Japan 
 to realise this unity in complexity with a special clearness. 
 The Indo-Tartaric blood of the race was in itself a heritage 
 which qualified it to imbibe from the two sources, and so 
 mirror the whole of Asiatic consciousness." 
 
 The Ideals of the East, written in the classical Japanese 
 language, appeared first in the Japanese weekly Nippon, 
 and afterwards, translated into English, in the monthly 
 The Far East. According to Mr. Stephen England, the 
 Emperor of Japan did an unprecedented thing when 
 Okakura's work appeared. " He praised it, and made his 
 praise known ; therefore it is to be assumed that his ideals 
 are those based upon the theory that Asia is one, and that 
 Japan is the impregnable rock upon which its regeneration 
 and salvation are to be based." 
 
 Against those facts we have the assurances of Japanese 
 statesmen that Japan has cast in her lot with the white 
 peoples, and adopted western conceptions of policy. Let 
 us accept those assurances; and suppose Japan has adopted 
 western ideals, and is acting upon them and has even 
 succeeded in teaching them to China and other Asiatic 
 peoples, what will be the consequences of it all ? Will not
 
 II 
 
 the Europeanised Asiatics demand the application of 
 European principles to themselves? Will not China, for 
 example, demand the abolition of the extra-territorial 
 European settlements in China, as well as free emigration 
 of Chinese to all countries under white rule? In the future 
 it would be very difficult to stop the flow of emigration, 
 first of Japanese, and then of Chinese, into such countries 
 as Australia, South Africa and West Africa, where the 
 white population is so small and is increasing so slowly. 
 
 Concerning Japan's external relations, especially with 
 Australia, Sir Tollemache Sinclair (formerly M.F. for 
 Caithness), in a letter to the Westminster Gazette (repro- 
 duced in his very valuable pamphlet Russia and Japan}, 
 speaks as follows : " It was clear to the Government of 
 Queensland, from 1890 to 1898, that Japan had set her 
 eyes on the tropical part of Australia, and indeed she had 
 largely populated the Northern Territory of South Aus- 
 tralia and the Pearl Shell Fisheries of Thursday Island. 
 She had also a number of labourers working in the Queens- 
 land sugar plantations. So serious at last did this invasion 
 become, that the Government was compelled to negotiate 
 with Japan to restrict this influx ; and only after endless 
 trouble could they succeed in getting a promise that the 
 numbers would not be increased. During these negotia- 
 tions our Government sent one of their best soldiers to 
 visit Japan, and after a considerable stay there and a 
 thorough inspection of their military system he made a 
 report, of which a copy was given to the War Office in 
 London, in which it was stated that the tropical portion of 
 Australia was considered by Japan as her natural heritage, 
 and that in every school the soldiers, from their earliest 
 enlistment, were educated to view this position as their 
 inevitable possession, and that all were taught the neces- 
 sary military methods to acquire it, if ever an occasion 
 arose. The correspondence between Japan and Queens- 
 land on these subjects can be seen in the Blue Books." 
 
 Leaving, however, to the author the responsibility for 
 the details of his statement, based as it appears on official 
 correspondence, I shall only remark that it cannot be 
 denied that Australia greatly attracts Eastern Asiatics, 
 and that she will be the first white country to feel the 
 pressure of their immigration. Such is the point of view 
 of the Australians themselves, and it explains their attitude 
 concerning the present war, widely different from that of
 
 12 
 
 the British public. It is not less certain that, whatever is 
 granted to Japan will necessarily be granted to China 
 later on, as well as to the Indian subjects of the British 
 Empire. It is, indeed, one of the greatest triumphs of 
 European civilisation to have taught Asiatics their geo- 
 graphical and historical unity. Would that they were able 
 to reward the service by teaching Europe the same lesson ! 
 
 I am not going to preach any coalition of Europeans 
 against Asiatics, of white races against coloured. The 
 latter have not always been treated well by the former ; 
 they are naturally anxious to secure better treatment and 
 more equal rights. But the white nations also have their 
 rights and interests to maintain, and they ought to unite 
 in mutual defence of them. The first step towards that 
 union should be a friendly understanding between Great 
 Britain and Russia, as suggested by the Chairman. 
 
 The chief difficulty in the way of a realisation of that 
 object is not so much the existence of positively divergent 
 interests which are few and capable of arrangement as 
 traditional and mutual distrust. There is, however, a 
 double ground for hoping that that obstacle may be over- 
 come. First, the example of an understanding between 
 Austria and Russia, who had been for a century and a 
 quarter in a direct antagonism on the Balkan question, 
 considered by each of them vital for herself, yet seven 
 years ago they came to an agreement regarding that very 
 question, and established a co-operation which, through 
 most critical contingencies, preserved peace in the near 
 East and obtained the approval and adhesion of the other 
 great Powers. And secondly, the happily intermediate 
 position of France which, owing to her alliance with Russia 
 and her understanding with England, wishes nothing better 
 than to bring England and Russia nearer together and to 
 unite them in the defence with her of European interests 
 in Asia. 
 
 It is not for me to enter into the details of an event- 
 ual agreement. We Russians are now occupied in settling 
 another question. But we always gladly welcome every 
 sincere offer of a friendly understanding, and I am happy to 
 have been able to respond to the offer made by our much- 
 respected Chairman.
 
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