Page:The National Geographic Magazine Vol 16 1905.djvu/375



O Japanese need feel himself among strangers when he addresses a British or American audience, excepting for the language that he has to use, and in talking to a gathering of Englishmen living in America he doubly feels among friends. We of Japan realize how much we owe to the great Anglo-Saxon nations, how much they have taught us, and how much we have still to learn from them. Some of your English writers have called us "the English of the Orient," and it was an American who termed Japanese "the Yankees of the Far East." We have not as yet progressed so far on the road to Yankeedom as to be able to sell you gentlemen of Boston wooden nutmegs, but we are still young in the ways of modern civilization. Give us time and there is hope we may even teach Connecticut a thing or two.

Having the honor to be with you tonight — inadequately taking the place of His Majesty's minister plenipotentiary, whose health unfortunately makes it impossible for him to be present, greatly to his regret — it is proper for me to express felicitations for this great day, echoing the sentiment deeply imbedded in the bosoms of the fifty millions of His Japanese Majesty's loyal subjects. Nothing would be more out of place, however, than an attempt on my part to dwell upon the significance of the Empire Day before the British audience. Let it suffice to say that the memory of Queen Victoria, that high personage, whose reign distinguishes itself in history not only in point of length, but in the fact that it is so peculiarly coincident with the wonderful tide of general advancement of civilization and material prosperity which has blessed Great Britain and the world in general, may perpetually be preserved in so fitting a manner as is done here tonight by the United British Societies in America.

This is not an occasion for making a long address, but being present here as the representative of Japan and as a guest of Britishers, I feel I cannot let the opportunity pass without saying a few words about that remarkable compact that binds our two countries to the satisfaction of ourselves and to the benefit of the world.

The object of the alliance, as is well known to you, cannot be better explained than by the language of Lord Lansdowne. In his covering and explanatory dispatch to Sir Claude McDonald, British minister at Tokio, Lord Lansdowne wrote: "We have each of us desired that the integrity and independence of the Chinese Empire should be preserved; that there should be no disturbance of the territorial status quo either in China or in the adjoining regions; that all nations should within those regions, as well as within the limits of the Chinese Empire, be afforded equal opportunities for the development of their commerce and industry, and that peace should not only be restored, but should for the future be maintained.

"His Majesty's government trusts that the agreement may be found of mutual advantage to the two countries; that it will make for the preservation of peace