Page:The Truth about China and Japan - Weale - 1919.djvu/169

 is for her to elect what her future is to be; whether the bacillus of imperialism is to be blown out by explosion, or dissipated by reform. Korea cried aloud for decent treatment—Korea can to-day rightfully demand either Home-rule or proper representation of her people in Japan's Diet. Here, if there ever was a case, is a country which should be administered only under a mandatory derived from a League of Nations; for what has Korea done that she should be treated as a conquered province? and why should Manchuria and the province containing the birthplace of Confucius—Shantung—be menaced by the same fate? It is not true that these regions are necessary for the overspill of the Japanese population; for they are densely populated and are not attracting Japanese immigrants. Korea, which has been under the Japanese heel for fifteen years, has to-day less than 400,000 Japanese immigrants, or a net increase of 300,000 persons since the Russo-Japanese War. During this period the Korean population has increased by over 3,000,000, and in less than two decades the land will be far more crowded than Japan. In the case of Manchuria, experience has not only conclusively proved that the Japanese cannot compete as farmers with the Chi-