Though the attitude of China had been as unheroic as would have been Menelaus’ had the latter declared neutrality in the Trojan war, the issue has done much to rouse the spirit of the Chinese people.  Other wars made them feel their weakness:  this one begot a belief in their latent strength.  When they witnessed a series of victories on land and sea gained by the Japanese over one of the most formidable powers of the West, they exclaimed, “If our neighbour can do this, why may we not do the same?  We certainly can if, like them, we break with the effete systems of the past.  Let us take these island heroes for our schoolmasters.”

[Page 194] That war was one of the most momentous in the annals of history.  It unsettled the balance of power, and opened a vista of untold possibilities for the yellow race.

Not slow to act on their new convictions, the Chinese have sent a small army of ten thousand students to Japan—­of whom over eight thousand are there now, while they have imported from the island a host of instructors whose numbers can only be conjectured.  The earliest to come were in the military sphere, to rehabilitate army and navy.  Then came professors of every sort, engaged by public or private institutions to help on educational reform.  Even in agriculture, on which they have hitherto prided themselves, the Chinese have put themselves under the teaching of the Japanese, while with good reason they have taken them as teachers in forestry also.  Crowds of Japanese artificers in every handicraft find ready employment in China.  Nor will it be long before pupils and apprentices in these home schools will assume the role of teacher, while Chinese graduates returning from Japan will be welcomed as professors of a higher grade.  This Japanning process, as it is derisively styled, may be somewhat superficial; but it has the recommendation of cheapness and rapidity in comparison with depending on teachers from the West.  It has, moreover, the immense advantage of racial kinship and example.  Of course the few students who go to the fountain-heads of science—­in the West—­must when they return home take rank as China’s leading teachers.

All this inclines one to conclude that a rapid transformation in this ancient empire is to be counted on. [Page 195] The Chinese will soon do for themselves what they are now getting the Japanese to do for them.  Japanese ideas will be permanent; but the direct agency of the Japanese people will certainly become less conspicuous than it now is.

To the honour of the Japanese Government, the world is bound to acknowledge that the island nation has not abused its victories to wring concessions from China.  In fact to the eye of an unprejudiced observer it appears that in unreservedly restoring Manchuria Japan has allowed an interested neutral to reap a disproportionate share of the profits.

[Page 196] CHAPTER XXIX

REFORM IN CHINA