[ [292] "Some of our statesmen," notes a Japanese reader of this Chapter, "are carried away by ideas of an industrial El Dorado." Such men have no understanding of the relation of rural Japan to the national welfare. They are as blind guides as the Japanese who, caught by the glamour of the West, threw away the artistic treasures of their forefathers and pulled down beautiful temples and yashiki. Japan has much to gain from a wise and just industrial system, but not a little of the present industrialisation is an exploitation of cheap labour, a destruction of craftsmanship and social obligation, and an attempt to cut out the foreigner by the production of rubbish.
[ [293] The chairman of Rothamsted declares as I write that the standard of English farming could be raised 50 per cent. Hall and Voelcker have estimated that 20 million tons of farmyard manure made in the United Kingdom is wasted through avoidable causes.
[ [294] For a discussion of the question of inner colonisation versus foreign expansion, see [Appendix LXXX].
[ [295] For figures bearing on the relative importance of agriculture, commerce and industry, see [Appendix LXXXI]. For armaments, see [Appendix XXXIII].
[ [296] There are many Britons who now reflect that millions which have gone into Mesopotamia might have been better spent by the Ministries of Health and Education.
The blessing of her sun-warmed days;
Her sea-spun cloak of wet;
Her pointing valleys, veiled in haze,
Where field and wood have met;
When we have gone our differing ways
These we shall not forget.
L.T., in The New East.