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Thh Review of Reviews. 



mercantile marine available. In this way an enormous 

 amount of American money left, and .still goes out of 

 the country, in the shape of freight charges to foreign- 

 owned vessels. Nothing shows the Japanese thorough- 

 ness to better advantage than the way in which they 

 prepared their merchant service preparatory to 

 acquiring the goods to load the vessels with. Visitors 

 to Japan at the end of the nineteenth century must 

 have seen the number of Japanese vessels lying in 

 the harbours waiting for employment. Then it 

 seemed to be a waste and a miscalculation, but time 

 has shown that it was only foresight. Slowly, year 

 by year, the proportion of the Japanese foreign trade 

 carried by Japanese vessels grows larger, and a corre- 

 sponding proportion of money stays in the country. 



BUILDING JAPANESE SHIPS IN JAPAN. 



And the Japanese thoroughness did not stop at tlie 

 mere creation of the fleet. It developed the means 

 of building the vessels, so that yet again Japanese 

 capital might remain in Japanese hands rather than 

 pass into those of the shipliuilders of the Clyde or the 

 Thames. Whereas formerly the whole supply of new 

 vessels of the great Jajianese shipping companies was 

 bought abroad, it is now doubtful whether there will 

 be any so purchased. The shipbuilding yards of Japan 

 have been developed up to the point where they can 

 supply the needs of the Japanese merchants, and 

 henceforth Japanese ships will be built in Japanese 

 yards. This proficiency is not confined to the merchant 

 vessels, for tlie same is true of the Government navy 

 yards, where first-class warships are being constructed 

 where but a short half-century ago sampans and 

 small junks were the only craft thought of. 



MAINTAINING AGRICULTURE. 



In developing the country into an industrial manu- 

 tacturing nation, both in order to set the national 

 finances upon a stable basis and that Japan might 

 play the great rdle which is her destiny among the 

 nations of the world, agriculture was not neglected. 

 Kather it was nurtured the more, forming as it does 

 a valuable national asset. It would have been illogical 

 for Japan if. while developing the great ideal of Japan 

 for the Japanese, she had neglected her agriculture 

 and ceased to be able to feed her own jjopulation. 

 The national idea demanded that, however important 

 the manufactures became, the food supply of the 

 country should be able to cope with (he increasing 

 population. Xot only could the agricultural output 

 not go backward, it had to move forward with the 

 nation's development. 



The cultivated area of Japan is comparatively small, 

 and owing to the natural conditions of the islands large 

 increase is not possible. Therefore the Japanese turned 

 their attention to the improvement of farming methods, 

 to improved irrigation and fertilisation in order to 

 secure an increased output. One great advantage which 

 Japan possesses, besides a beneficent climate, is the 

 fact that the faims are worked in small sections by the 

 small farmers and their families. This enables greater 



care to be paid to the crops, though, of course, it has 

 also the disadvantage of the impossibility of using 

 labour-saving machinery. Sixty per cent, of the whole 

 population is employed in farming pursuits, and the 

 farms being worked largely by manual laliour, there is 

 every opportunity for national impulse to inspire 

 individual effort. 



MAKING A COUNTRY SELF-SUPPORTING. 



" Imagine," says one writer, " all the tillable acres 

 of Japan as merged into one field. The centre peri- 

 meter of such a field could be skirted by a man in an 

 automobile, travelling fifty miles an hour, in the period 

 of eleven hours ! " Small wonder, then, that the agri- 

 culturists of Japan are entitled to rank amongst the 

 best patriots of that patriotic people ! In one of the 

 Emperor's poems occurs a verse in which he declares 

 the tiller of his field in Japan is achieving for his nation 

 equal glory with the soldier on the battlefield. Japanese 

 patriotism, aided by the latest scientific methods, is a 

 force which is able even to overcome all obstacles and 

 produce on 19,000 square miles food for 45,000,000. 

 It is in the spreading of the scientific methods and 

 the latest methods of agriculture that the Japanese 

 Government has been so successful, the farmers never 

 lacking in enthusiasm. In the old times the farmers 

 had as their duty the feeding of the military classes; 

 now they have the larger duty of feeding an entire 

 nation, which has increased by over ten million persons 

 since the Restoration. 



The House of Representatives, the elected represen- 

 tatives of the people, passed a law outlining a reform, 

 a change in the very appearance of Japan, which was 

 welcomed by the country! This was nothing less than 

 a law for the adjustment of farm lands, and providing 

 for the change of farm lots so as to allow of the more 

 regular arrangement of holdings. The irregular boun- 

 daries and pathways between the various properties 

 were to be simplified, and in this way the amount of 

 land under cultivation was to be increased. 



NATIONAL DEFENCE AND NATIONAL SERVICE. 



In a country where patriotism and universal sacrifice 

 for the welfare of the fatherland play the predominant 

 part, it is inevitable that the question of national 

 defence should be treated in a competent manner. 

 Theoretically the army system of Japan is based 

 upon conscription, but truly this is a case where 

 the voice is the voice of voluntary service although 

 the hand be the hands of conscription. From 

 the age of seventeen until that of forty all male 

 subjects are placed on the military roll.r, and 

 are liable for service. Concerning this Marquis Ito. 

 writes : — " Japanese subjects are of the elements 

 that make up the Japanese Empire. They are 

 to protect the existence, the independence, and the 

 glory of the country. . . . Every male adult in the 

 whole country shall be compelled, without distinction 

 of class or family, to fulfil, in accordance with the pro- 

 visions of law, his duty of serving in the army, that he 

 may be incited to valour while his body undergoes ' 



