Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 1.djvu/40

 sion between Indian troops and Europeans, would think of counting the inches of the Ghoorka or the Sepoy. The Japanese, indeed, resemble the Ghoorkas very closely. There is the same lightness of movement, the same admirable balance of muscle and bone, the same symmetry of form and power of endurance. A very marked advantage in height is on the side of the Chinaman; so marked that from ancient times he has been accustomed to call the Japanese "pygmies." Nevertheless, in the war of 1894–95 the Chinese went down helplessly before the Japanese wherever the two met. The same difference of bulk exists in favour of the Korean, yet an even greater difference of fighting capacity has been practically established in favour of the Japanese. There is thus no reason to argue any physical disability on the part of the Japanese to take a successful part in a warlike struggle; and in the Chili campaign of 1900, when they marched in the van of Europe and America to the relief of Peking, they showed themselves at least as efficient as the soldiers of any other nationality. They have two very marked advantages: the simplicity of their diet, which immensely facilitates commissariat arrangements; and the excellence of their officers. It was owing in great part to the former fact that their war with China in 1894–95 cost them only twenty million pounds sterling. They conducted seven campaigns over-sea, involving a force of a hundred and twenty thousand men, and they