Chapter XXVI

Not merely do the authorities of Formosa look upon all foreigners with suspicion, but the tendency to impress the island with the greatness of Japan has led to a marked decline in courtesy toward them. They habitually treat Caucasians at least as at best unwelcome interlopers. The racial clannishness of the Japanese stands out with double clarity in their southernmost island. Bare statistics speak volumes; of the nearly four million inhabitants credited to Formosa by the latest census a hundred and seventy-five thousand are Japanese, and only one hundred and fifty are foreigners—except some thirty thousand non-subject Chinese. The Japanese have never really allowed foreigners to acquire land in Formosa, any more than in Japan—queer noises those against the California land laws under the circumstances—and the naturalization at least of Westerners is rare and difficult. Politically the Japanese Empire is like Brahmanism and Judaism among religions—not open to other people; yet the little brown men complain bitterly if the rule is made to work both ways.

Not only are they scarce there, but in Formosa the precedence of Caucasians is exceedingly low. The three foreign consuls were the last persons presented to the prince regent at the time of his recent visit; they were the only foreigners invited to meet him, and they were got rid of before the speech of welcome by the governor-general. I had the amusing privilege of attending the public reception of a new governor-general, whom a war-ship had deposited on the island the day before I landed. Thanks to the fact that national mourning in our own land made available the formal dress which would otherwise have adorned our official representative in the island, I was able to run the gauntlet of Japanese official requirements. In the auditorium of the imposing foreign-style hotel of Taihoku not a foreigner had a seat, of which there were several hundred, during the feudal ceremony of welcome, and no attention whatever was paid to the invited foreign guests at the atrocious stand-up cold supper—at three yen a plate—which followed. I could not but note the contrast between this positively ill-bred treatment and the attentions showered upon foreigners by Chinese authorities, though the latter in many cases like us no better than do the Japanese.

Since Japanese consuls in foreign countries have much military intelligence work to do, it is impossible to convince the authorities and people of Japan that our consuls confine themselves to the commercial side of their calling. Even when a duly credited representative of a Western nation asks for such information as is commonly shared freely between all civilized countries, the Formosan government hedges and delays, and Japanese firms follow its lead. All reports to foreign consuls must go through a long succession of government bureaucrats for approval; every one is afraid to give the simplest information for fear the men higher up will not sanction it—and in Japanese firms and official circles the man higher up is indeed a being to be dreaded. All such information is subject to censorship, and to all possible delays at every turn, ending at military headquarters. Here the heart of the report is invariably taken out of it and the long-delayed and wholly emasculated reply is sent all the way back “through proper channels” to the originating bureau to be forwarded. Yet when some firms once answered a consul direct, the government demanded and kept the reports! The Japanese are such good copiers themselves that they seem to be mortally afraid some one will steal their own puny little ideas. On the other hand the clerk of our consulate in Formosa is a Japanese—which is enough said.

Japanese coastwise laws secure for Japanese bottoms virtually all shipping to or from Formosa. The Japanese import tariff applies, of course, to all the empire, which means that there is a high, in most cases a prohibitive, duty on all foreign goods coming into the island. Consequently one rarely sees in its markets anything but Japanese wares, including many imitations of Western articles. As in Korea, American residents who are given endless trouble to get shipments through the customs are asked why they do not at least have their goods sent from Seattle or San Francisco in Japanese ships, with the hint that this might save them some of their difficulties. The Formosan cargo open to foreign ships is very limited, so that rarely indeed does other than a Japanese steamer call at the island. This is surely short-sighted policy. If the great transpacific liners, all of which go almost within sight of Taiwan, touched there the tourist income of Formosa would increase a hundredfold. As it is, only a brave or a foolish traveler will take one of the Japanese coastwise steamers to and from the place to see it, even if he ever finds himself in a port from which they sail. Little trade can be indulged in by purely foreign firms in Formosa, unless they have at least an agency in Japan proper. Local firms do not know English, and they hesitate to run the risk of divulging trade secrets to outsiders by having such correspondence translated. These things, in addition to the American hesitancy to sell in the small lots that are required for such a market, plus the bad packing that seems to be a general and incorrigible American fault, do not leave much chance to find your favorite tooth-paste or wearable shoes in Formosan shops.