T

HE Japanning of the Far East has advanced another step since the beginning of the European War, with the Japanese in control of Tsing-tao and Kiaochow Bay, and the purchase of Macao, the Portuguese possession in China.

When Japan declared war on Germany her aim was to get possession of the great German naval base at Tsing-tao. After some stubborn fighting on the side of the Germans to hold their little possession with a mere

handful of men against the Japanese fleet, they finally had to surrender to the enemy.

Tsing-tao, or Tsingtau, as the Germans used to call it, does not sound very much like Germany, nor would we expect to see anything like Germany after we had traveled for months through territory where disorder is the rule. A visitor not knowing what to expect is astonished to find himself on the coast of the Yellow Sea, and at the same time in a model German city, spotlessly clean, well laid

out streets, first class hotels, beautiful private homes and gardens, monumental public buildings and apartment houses. A view from the wireless station some seven hundred feet above

sea level gives us a splendid outlook over the red tiled roofs so characteristic of the European city.

Germany was unstinted in her expenditure for public improvement, intending to make Tsing-tao a basis of operation, should the situation in the Far East make one necessary. The necessary concrete docks, and other shipping facilities, and the convenient Kiaochow Bay as well as its proximity to Dalny (Dairen) and Port Arthur, the key to the Manchurian situation, would have made it an ideal naval base, no matter how she was allied. Germany has practically taught Japan its

military lesson and Japan is an able student, for today Japan has a standing army of seven hundred and fifty thousand men, trained under German military discipline. Naturally Germany thought that Japan would stay neutral in the present war, and the fact that Japan has taken her pet colony from her, when she was unable to defend it, has made the Germans decidedly anti-Japanese.

Due credit must be given to the Japanese, for the treatment of its prisoners. There are about thirty German inhabitants left in Tsingtao, old men, some women and children, who are allowed to make their living by attending to their little stores and small restaurants. The English wished to deprive these people of earning their livelihood selling to the public, but the Japanese would not permit it. The

beautiful private homes that the Germans left behind them are now occupied by the Japanese and I was informed by good authority that rent is being paid to the private owners, and it is the intention of the Japanese to return all of the private property to the owners, at the end of the war. The combined public and private property of Tsingtao is worth approximately one hundred million dollars; over half a million dollars was spent on the docks and municipal buildings. The wireless station is probably the most powerful in the Far East, having a sending radius of three thousand miles. It is now in active service for the Japanese, keeping Tokyo in touch with the Chinese situation without depending on cable service, and its attendant leakage. Japan has not been allowed to re-fortify the place and

she is keeping her word, but what will happen after the war? Japan fought and lost her men taking it. Japan is now governing it, and by a recent treaty with Russia over which all of Japan felt quite elated, Japan and Russia are to stand by one another should any other nation attempt to interfere in the Far East. It was a beautiful piece of Japanese diplomacy; it practically assures her a free hand in China, should Japan see the necessity of interfering with the Chinese in order to protect her interests. It is no secret in China that the rebel leaders are being supplied with arms and ammunition by the Japanese; in Manchuria where Japan is in control, arms have been peddled publicly, and when the Chinese soldiers killed some of the peddlers, Japan immediately sent a force against the Chinese. In