CONCLUSION 307 



remembered that Japanese commercial success 

 depends upon open markets in Asia, as she does more 

 trade with Asia than with all the rest of the world 

 put together. Japan resembles England in many of 

 the characteristics of her people and in her com- 

 mercial requirements and prospects. She is as 

 dependent on the development of her foreign trade 

 as we are in the development of ours, but is con- 

 siderably freer from commercial prejudices tha:n we 

 are. Japan possesses a further advantage over us in 

 that she has not ceased to be an agricultural pation 

 and that she has an abundance of cheap labour to 

 draw upon in the development of. her manufacturing 

 industries, which will enable her to compete with 

 her rivals on exceedingly advantageous terms, and 

 very much to our detriment, a;s We shalll learn by 

 bitter experience very soon. One reason for allying 

 ourselves with Japan was that we were afraid of 

 interference by other nations with the 43^ million 

 pounds' worth of trade per annum between the United 

 Kingdom, her colonies and dependencies, and China;. 

 Japan, in her turn, wals desirous of securing our 

 support in order to preserve her own trade with Asia, 

 which amounts to about 30J million poimds annually. 

 Although the trade which Japan does with Asia is 

 thus Been to be some 13J million pounds sterling, 

 less than that which is done by Great Britain, it 

 should be recollected that the former can show an 

 increase of no less thajn: 50 per cent, in five yearjs, 

 while the amount of trade/ done by Japan with China 

 alone increased in one year (1902- 1903) by 21 per 

 cent. The figures for these two years show that the 

 exports from Japan to China alone increased from 

 £4,595,000 to £6,627,850, or by £2,032,850. iThe 

 worst feature about this increase, however, is that 

 one million sterling of it represented an increase in 

 the export to China of cotton yarjis, at the cost of 



