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CHAPTER II
TAKAO I THE HAEBOUE OP THE SOUTH
We are met by Mr. Koshimura, of the Foreign Section—He attaches himself as A.D.C.—Obstacles vanish—Takao harbour—I call on the Civil Governor—A stroll to a hill-top—An account of Takao—Visit to Ako Sugar Refinery—The sugar industry in Formosa—Its progress under Japanese encouragement—Return to Takao—The ritual of card-giving—Government officials—Japanese methods of administration.

ON the morning after our arrival off Takao we were up bright and early, as the purser had assured us that the police would be on board by six.
Few ships' inspections, however, take place when they are timed to, and at eight o'clock no one had been near us. The captain's frequent hootings produced as much result as if he had been knocking at the door of an empty house.
For us it was rather an apprehensive period. No people observe more formalities or are more redtapey than the Japanese. They are particularly strict in their inspections of passports, and I realized that we had only the Hong Kong shipping agent's note of explanation to account for the want of a Japanese visa on our own document. So, when it came at last, I watched the arrival of the launch which brought out the police and customs officials with mixed feelings. I knew that the police were quite equal to not letting us land at all, but the thought of that quaintly worded cable of welcome 45 46 TAKAO : THE HARBOUR OF THE SOUTH from the Formosan Government kept my spirits up, and I went below to fish, it out of my despatch-case in readiness for emergencies.
Then things happened beyond our hopes. As the bowing Japanese officer announced that he was to be our attache he held out a card, from which I learnt that he was Mr. C. Koshimura of the Foreign Section of the Formosan Government. I produced a card in return and he bowed once more profoundly. We had a few moments' conversation, and I found that, on the strength of Mr. Irving 's letter of introduction, all arrangements had been made for us to make a trip through the island under his personal guidance.
I introduced him to my wife, and then gave him the defective passport and the agent's note.
Mr. Koshimura got to work at once and proceeded to place his services at our disposal and to act as our interpreter with much goodwill. A long harangue in Japanese took place in the saloon where the officials had congregated. The result was that the Chief Police Officer put his stamp upon the passport and marked all our luggage with a mystic symbol which saved us any further trouble with the minions of the customs who were swarming about the ship. I then informed Mr. Koshimura (with some diffidence) of our misfortune in finding all the banks closed in Hong Kong and of our consequent lack of ready money, whereupon he promptly insisted on lending me fifty yen in Formosan currency to enable me to pay my 'chits' and to tip the stewards, who did not seem to like the look of the few Hong Kong dollar notes I had.
The news that we were being received in Formosa as guests of the Government seemed to spread round the ship in three minutes, and in consequence our stock rose many points above par. During the THE ORIGINAL NOSEY PARKER 47 voyage there had been some doubt about our intentions, I was sure, although no one on board who could command any English had spared himself in attempts to find out all about us, either by hints or by direct interrogations. I am quite certain that the original Mr. Nosey Parker was a Japanese. It is true that I had mentioned casually to the captain that I had received a cable of welcome from the Governor-General's staff, but on hearing this piece of information he had made the same kind of noise that I should make if my barber told me he was lunching with the King, so I had not insisted. But when it was clear that so far from being impostors we were honoured guests, everyone became extraordinarily polite and affable, and one gentleman, who was manager of a store in Macassar, thrust his card into my hand begging me to come and see him if I ever passed his way.
§2
In the meantime the Sourabaya steamed slowly through the portals of Takao l Harbour, the mouth of which is but 350 feet wide and admirably adapted for defensive purposes. Upon the hill on the western side stands the old British consulate, untenanted for many years. One of the great disadvantages of Formosa is that there are few good natural harbours in the island. Takao, on the southwest coast, is the nearest convenient port to Hong Kong, and the Japanese have spent large sums in improving and developing it. In its natural state the harbour was little more than a shallow lagoon with a bottom of shifting sand and a bar which even 1 Formerly spelt "Takow." The Japanese characters which form the name were ohanged recently. 48 TAKAO : THE HARBOUR OF THE SOUTH
at high tide had a depth of no more than fifteen feet.
By dredging the bar and the harbour itself and by freeing the narrow entrance from obstructions, the authorities have enabled six steamers of 8,000 tons to lie alongside the wharves to-day, and six more of similar size can moor in the harbour, while there are another six buoys for smaller vessels. Another year or so will see the final improvements and the completion of a breakwater to protect the entrance and to prevent the bar from silting up. The widening of the harbour mouth to 500 feet is a scheme for the future. When lying outside one receives a peculiar impression of the harbour, for it looks as though the coast had been blasted through to effect an opening to an inland lake.
As soon as we came alongside the wharf a gang of coolies, summoned by the magic wand of Koshimura, appeared for our luggage and we went ashore.
Rickshaws were called and we were haled off to pay our respects to the Governor of Takao. We arrived at the offices of the Local Government, a very modern building of red brick. The place seemed to be deserted except for an unshaven old ragamuffin in a kimono. I took him for a caretaker and was sur- prised to see Koshimura bowing to him. He turned out to be a secretary, and after a long confabulation between him and Koshimura I was informed that the Governor was not in office as it was a public holiday. Nevertheless, I was stripped of three of my scanty supply of cards: one for His Excellency and two for his satellites.
Koshimura then took us for a stroll to the top of a hill, where there was a little tea-house gay with fluttering flags. From the garden, beset with rocks as a sea with islands, we had a splendid view of the town below, its closely packed shops and houses THE ENTBANCE TO TAKAO HARBOUR.
9 "*
THE LANTERN PAINTER.
-CLIMATE 49
and the strange medley of Eastern and terriblyWestern architecture with which we were soon to become familiar. The Japanese houses, with their curving ash-grey gables, were as attractive as they are in other parts of the Empire, and in comparison with them the glaring brick of the public buildings, as violent as a red tie, looked utterly detestable.
The streets were broad and well laid out; in some of them avenues of coconut trees had been planted, but latitude 22° is too far north for the palms and they were not flourishing; it did not seem likely that they would ever produce nuts to fall unexpectedly upon the heads of passers-by and cause a panic in the traffic.
Takao is situated slightly over a degree south of the Tropic of Cancer and therefore has a subtropical climate, with a spring and a mild winter ; so different from those changeless days of heat in lands a thousand miles to the south where there are no seasons, though Koshimura told us that in the summer the thermometer rose to over 85°. The day of our arrival, however, was in pleasant April.
Since Takao is in almost the same latitude as Hong Kong we had expected to find it cold and had dressed accordingly, but the sun was hot and by the time I had reached the top of the hill I should have been glad of a small drink. Koshimura, however, had so definitely assumed the role of host that I did not like to say so. From our hill we were able to watch the start of a Marathon race to Tainan, the next big town, thirty miles away. Besides a large crowd, the two motorcars of Takao and a large pack of bicycles followed the runners. When the last of them had disappeared round the corner of the main street, Koshimura consulted the itinerary to which he appeared to be 4 50 TAKAO : THE HARBOUR OF THE SOUTH working and informed us that it was time to set off to visit a sugar refinery, the directors of which were expecting us. At the railway station we found the Governor's Chief of Staff waiting to see us off, card in hand, full of apologies that there had been no one to receive us at headquarters. The train took us to Ako, 1 a small town fifteen miles away, crossing what we were told was the longest bridge in the Japanese Empire—it is 5,000 feet from end to end and spans a wide and stony water-course. All the land for miles on either side of the line was intensively cultivated with wet rice, sugar, and potatoes, After a short rickshaw ride from Ako we reached the offices of the refinery and were ushered into an ante-room furnished (rather stiffly) in the Western fashion. Introductions to the directors of the company and an exchange of cards followed. Green tea in tiny porcelain cups without handles was produced, together with some sugar wafers and chocolates.
Then, after a long wait, came luncheon in what Koshimura called European style. All five courses were set on the table at once and there was only green tea to drink, but as we had breakfasted at seven and it was then two o 'clock it tasted very good indeed. We were rather perturbed at first because we could find nothing to eat our fish with, but when we unfolded the paper table-napkins, to our relief a set of tools, as they say in Canada, fell out upon the clothless table with a clatter.
§3 | Unfortunately on the day of our visit the refinery was not working as the cane harvest was over, but 1 Re-named " Heito " about 1920, but the old name was stilJ used. THE SUGAR INDUSTRY 51
we were taken round the works and the mysteries of the machinery were expounded by one of the directors amidst a sickly and all-pervading smell of sugar.
The sugar industry is one of the few important enterprises in Formosa that is not a Government monopoly, and it is certainly the most successful. It has developed rapidly on a large and scientific scale and has paid huge dividends. For instance, the Formosan Sugar Manufacturing Company, whose guests we were for the moment, had paid a dividend of 50 per cent, for the preceding six months on a capital of 30,000,000 yen. I was given a copy of the balance sheet (printed in English), and was interested to see that the pension and relief fund amounted to over a million yen and the fund for recreation of the employees to a million and a half.
The company obviously believes in looking after the welfare of its servants, and its example might well be followed by less progressive Japanese employers of labour, who are only too often indifferent in such matters, as, for example, the ravages of tuberculosis among the girls employed in cotton mills in Japan clearly show.
The cultivation of the sugar-cane is one of the oldest forms of agriculture in the East. The original home of the cane is said to have been the coast region extending from Bombay to Assam, and the inhabitants of Bengal sent sugar to China as tribute as long ago as the third century. From India the cane was introduced to China, and thence to Formosa by the early settlers. It was the most important agricultural export when the Dutch first gained a footing on the island at the beginning of the seventeenth century, large consignments being sent to Japan especially from the southern districts, where the 52 TAKAO : THE HARBOUR OF THE SOUTH
annual rainfall is about 58 inches. This is the precise amount of humidity required for growing sugar under the best conditions, particularly when the greater part of the rain falls, as it does in Formosa, during the hot season. When the Dutch had been driven out of the island by Koxinga, the sugar industry was encouraged and became even more important ; fresh seed plants were obtained from China, new methods of cultivation and manufacture were introduced. In fifty years the production of the island was doubled, but after Formosa had been under the sway of China proper for some years the industry came to be looked upon by the officials as a convenient sponge from which to squeeze revenue.
Heavy taxes were imposed, with the result that cultivation was neglected and the prosperity of the industry waned. Sugar is a most exhausting crop to the soil, and as no precautions were taken to put back what was removed from it, the ground became impoverished and the quality of the sugar suffered accordingly. Indeed it was only because the soil was so exceptionally rich and the climate so peculiarly suitable that the industry did not die out altogether.
It is interesting to see how the Japanese authorities turned their attention to the encouragement of sugar cultivation soon after the cession of the island by China. The importance and the possibilities of the industry were realized at once. Experts were called in to examine the position from every standpoint in a scientific manner, and, in order to give practical effect and support to their recommendations, the Government issued regulations for the en- couragement and protection of sugar planting. Both the small planters and the manufacturers were assisted. Government land was leased rent free and the farmer was given the ownership as soon as he PROGRESS OF SUGAR CULTIVATION 53
had succeeded in bringing a crop of cane into bearing ; he could apply for grants of money to help him open up and cultivate his land ; he was given further assistance to enable him to buy seedlings and fertilizers ; when the cost of irrigation and drainage of the land amounted to over 1,000 yen he could apply for a grant up to half the amount he had laid out.
The manufacturers of raw sugar were assisted on their part with subsidies if they installed machinery which could deal with over 75,000 lb. a day, and the refiners were assisted in a like manner if their machinery was capable of refining over 15,000 lb.
of crude sugar a day.
Money was lent out at a low rate of interest, cuttings were obtained from Hawaii, Java, and Australia; nurseries were established and experiments with various species of cane were carried out, whereby it was ascertained that the 'Lahaina' and the 'rose bamboo' from Hawaii were the varieties most suited to Formosan conditions and gave not only a greater yield of cane per acre than any others, but also a greater yield of sugar per pound of cane. The authorities even went to the expense of importing seven modern crushing-mills for loan to the southern manufacturers. Government officials were sent to visit the great sugar-producing countries, Java and Hawaii, and returned with the latest information regarding scientific production, the methods of improving the quality of the output, and the use of the by-products, especially for the making of alcohol. I doubt if any Government in the world, with the possible exception of Germany, would go to such lengths in assisting an industry as Japan has done.
The progressive measures and proposals of the Formosan Government at first did not receive the 54 TAKAO : THE HARBOUR OF THE SOUTH
attention they deserved in the island itself, for no person on earth is a more hide-bound conservative than the Chinese peasant. Nor did they find any immediate acceptance among those in whose hands the manufacture of the sugar lay. The methods that had been good enough for a former generation were good enough for them, said they, and they viewed the innovations with suspicion. More enlightened capitalists were found in Japan. The rich opportunities held out were seized, with the result that several large companies were floated, the first of which was, so my host told me, the Formosan Sugar Company. This came into existence in 1901, with a guaranteed dividend of 6 per cent, from the Government; many prominent Japanese were associated with it and a considerable interest was held by the Imperial Household. The company's first factory was erected at Kyoshito, between Tainan and Takao, and at first met with strong local opposition, as all those interested in the primitive native factories not unnaturally did their best to prevent the new company from obtaining cane. However, as the Government regulations and subsidies bore fruit, more and more land became planted; consequently cane was obtained in abundance, the company flourished and was enabled later to extend its activities to Ako.
To-day the old native mill, still familiar in some parts of China and Malaya, has passed away. It was simplicity itself, the cane being crushed by means of revolving stone rollers worked by a couple of water-buffaloes. As the cane was crushed by the rollers the juice flowed off through a bamboo tube into a receiving-pan. Thence it was ladled into re- ceptacles under each of which was a furnace, and by this means was boiled down into raw brown sugar of the crudest description amidst the filthiest surround-JAPANESE IMPROVEMENTS 55 ings. In Formosa these mills were usually owned by money-lenders, who also owned the sugar-land, leased it out to the small farmers, and took a share of the produce as rent. They lent the farmers money to work the land at a high rate of interest— anything from 14 to 24 per cent.—and moreover they expected their tenants to dispose of their produce to them as well as paying 7 per cent, for having the cane crushed in their mills. From the point of view of the money-lenders the system was ideal. It is obvious how much they made out of the business and how little the farmers, who, as their burden of debt grew heavier, became slaves in all but name.
This nefarious system, together with the primitive methods of manufacture, has long been superseded.
The sugar-land is owned by the companies and is rented out on fair terms to the farmers, who are supplied with seedlings, tools, and advances, while the companies take over the produce at a fixed rate.
Narrow-gauge railway lines have been laid through the plantations by means of which the cane is brought to the factory door; it is taken from the trucks up a rollered shoot into the mills, where it goes through the various stages of preparation by automatic machinery until it leaves in the form of refined sugar or pure alcohol.
At the present time there are thirteen companies engaged in the sugar industry in Formosa and some forty-five refineries with modern machinery. The land under sugar-cane cultivation is about 300,000 acres, while the annual export of sugar is 250,000 tons, ten times the amount exported at the time when the Japanese took over the island. Some companies also import raw sugar from Java for refining. The prospects are promising, for so great is the demand for sugar from Japan alone that an even greater 56 TAKAO : THE HARBOUR OF THE SOUTH
production can still be absorbed and the consumption per head is said to be increasing. At the same time matters are not so rosy in 1923 as in 1921, the year of our visit, and with the fall in the price of sugar and the relatively high costs of production, 50 per cent, dividends are not likely to be seen in the near future.
M Having seen all there was to see, and a little bemazed by technicalities either explained in rather halting English or translated by Koshimura with some difficulty, we returned to the ante-room where we found some excellent iced papaya and soda-water waiting for us. The fruit looked so tempting that I began eating mine before I was meant to and was covered with confusion when our host came in and invited me to start.
Another director then appeared armed with books and pamphlets. A long disquisition on the sugar industry followed and some books and photographs were presented to my wife. Then we said good-bye, after a most interesting afternoon, and set off again by rickshaw to catch the train for Takao, parting with another card for the sub-prefect of the district on the way.
This card-giving amused me at first, but I had still to learn how important a part the ordinary visiting- card plays in modern Japanese etiquette. Every- where we went in Formosa we were met by officials ; on an introduction being performed by Koshimura these gentlemen bowed gravely and produced cards.
Some had their names and offices printed in Japanese characters, which I got Koshimura to translate for me afterwards; some, more up-to-date, had their name in Roman letters on the obverse, as they say of THE RITUAL OF CARD-GIVING 57
medals ; whilst others, more enlightened still, kept a supply both of Japanese and Western cards to meet all emergencies. They all expected to get one in return, but, not having come prepared for such contingencies, I soon found that my meagre supply was becoming exhausted, and, even though I managed to eke them out by pressing those of my wife into service, I had to take care not to be too lavish.
The card ceremonial is a strange example of how a Western social custom can be adopted and intensified by an Eastern nation; but, when one comes to think of it, the whole thing is extremely sensible.
As a rule Americans seldom forget names when they are introduced. They seem to have a simple method of memorizing them by repetition. They just say "Glad to know you, Mr. Snooks," and they have got Mr. Snooks in a pigeon-hole of their mind for all time. With the English it is different. To begin with, no Englishman ever listens when he is being introduced. Even if he did he would listen in vain, because the introducer usually forgets at least one of the names at the critical moment, or, if he happens to remember, gives them in an inaudible mumble.
Unlike the American, who makes no bones about it, the Englishman is too shy to ask his new acquaintance to repeat his name. On the rare occasion when he might hear it he is too busy criticizing the owner 's personal appearance, and when he begins to grope for it in his mind the name is gone. More often still he really doesn't care a hoot what the other fellow's name is, and if, later, he wants to attract his attention, he does so by saying *Er.' That is why people in England • Answer to Hi ! or any loud cry,' simply because it has become customary with us to 58 TAKAO : THE HARBOUR OF THE SOUTH
know people for months without knowing their rightful names. Everybody prides himself on re- membering faces, but few care to pride themselves on remembering names, though I have always liked the story of Oscar Wilde, who, when a lady said to him, ''Don't you remember me, Mr. Wilde? I'm Miss Smith," replied with a delightful smile, "I remember your name perfectly, but I cannot quite recollect your face." There is no doubt that our social life might be simplified by adopting the methods of the Japanese, although even if card presenting were to become the fashion we should probably stuff any cards we re- ceived into our pockets and forget to look at them, or confuse Mr. Jones's with Mr. Brown's, which would be worse.
§5
The number of officials in the Formosan Civil Service seemed to be very great, for the Japanese are as bureaucratic a nation as the Germans.
Since 1920 the island has been divided for administrative purposes into five provinces, Taihoku, Shinchiku, Taichu, Tainan, and Takao, each under a Governor, and two prefectures, Kwarenko and Taito, each under a Prefect. The prefectures comprise the less developed regions along the east coast, and have a larger proportion of aborigines among their population than the five provinces. The chief administrator, with his seat in Taihoku, the capital, is the Governor-General, appointed directly by the Emperor, with a Vice-Governor, or Director-General, as his Chief of Staff. The provinces and prefectures are themselves divided into districts each administered by a sub-prefect, who has his headquarters in GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS 59
the chief town of the area under his jurisdiction.
The three cities of Taihoku, Tainan, and Taichu are municipalities under a mayor, and are independent of the sub-prefectures, being placed directly under the Governor of the Province. The smaller units of local government are the gai (town), presided over by a Town Officer or Headman, and the sho (village) which is under a Village Headman. There are also branch police offices in the charge of police officers.
From what I saw of the police in Formosa, they seemed to play a most important part in the subordinate branches of the civil administration. Their duties are far more comprehensive than the term ' policeman ' usually conveys. Just as they do in most outstation districts of our Crown colonies, they assist in the conduct of government and the collection of taxes ; besides their ordinary police work they are messengers and heralds, often the link between the peasants, with whom they are in touch, and the machinery of administration.
Besides the police and the purely administrative officers there are large numbers of Government ser- vants in the judicial, prisons, customs, educational, medical, railway, and engineering departments. The Monopoly Bureau employs many hundreds; there are also State departments for technical research and agricultural experimental stations, as well as an institute for scientific investigation.
Every official, high or low, wears the uniform of the Civil Service both on and off duty, except of course in his own house, when he changes it for a kimono. The uniform consists of a black serge tunic buttoning to the neck and bound with black braid, trousers of the same material, and a peaked cap with the Government emblem. Badges of rank are only 60 TAKAO : THE HARBOUR OF THE SOUTH
worn on ceremonial occasions, so that it is impossible for the uninitiated to distinguish between a governor and a clerk. Referring to the introduction of this uniform by a former Governor-General at a time when the administration had become very lax, Mr.
Y. Takekoshi says in his Japanese Rule in Formosa 1 : * ' This ingenious device not only saved ex- penses for clothes, but also helped the wearers to maintain their proper dignity, adding to their sense of importance, and making them more ready to bear hardships in the performance of their duty. Thus it proved very effectual in maintaining order and discipline.
' ' This may have been so when the innovation was introduced, but by now it seems a little overdone; every second Japanese one meets seems to be in uniform, which becomes rather oppressive. In fact the Government officials, who number about 22,000, form 25 per cent, of the total male Japanese community, while doorkeepers, messengers, and the like make up another 3,000. I suspect that the pay of the majority is inconsiderable, for the Governor of a province receives only £700 a year, 2 and the Governor-General, in spite of his high position, only £1,200, whereas the Governor of Ceylon receives the equivalent of £8,000 a year. On the other hand, the average Japanese official has fewer expenses than a British civil ser- vant in a tropical colony; he need spend less on household, clothing, and education ; he does not have to entertain, play games, belong to clubs, or keep a car. Koshimura informed me, a little sadly, that the Imperial Government was reducing the number
1 p. 21.
2 This figure includes a 50 per cent, bonus on his substantive salary.
All Japanese officials in Formosa receive this bonus, and consequently are better off financially than their colleagues in Japan. KOSHIMURA'S IDIOSYNCRASIES 61
of its civil servants throughout the Empire by 12,000, so that it seems probable that before long many of those in Formosa will be 'axed.'
§ 6
On the way back to Takao, Koshimura became absorbed in his time-table of arrangements and seemed rather agitated lest anything should go wrong. But he was a pleasant companion and a mine of information—as long as he understood the questions we showered upon him. He was small, even for a Japanese, and slight; he was a great smoker—he once described himself as 'a good cloudcompeller'; his gold-rimmed spectacles gave him a studious air, and he spoke with deliberation. As a race I do not consider the Japanese good linguists (a statement of superb insularity, I admit, considering that few Englishmen can speak any foreign language, let alone Japanese, with any fluency), and I think they are inferior to the Chinese in this respect. Koshimura had never been in Europe, but he had obviously worked hard at the study of English. He was very modest about his accomplishments, and I think that until he became used to the sound of our voices conversation was rather a strain for him. I was sometimes inclined to think that he was having 'shots' when he replied (and this led me to verify the information he gave me whenever I could), but occasionally even a shot was beyond him.
He would hesitate, put his head on one side while he looked for the meaning of a remark as one looks for the hall-mark on a piece of silver, and finally, being unable to find one, would abandon further efforts and declare with a laugh: "I do not understand what you say." 62 TAKAO : THE HARBOUR OF THE SOUTH
This non-comprehension used to come over him in waves, but once or twice I think it was brought on by my asking too inquisitive questions. Doubtless he felt it was more courteous to appear dense than to tell me that I was knocking upon forbidden doors.
It was very tactful. In fact Koshimura was one of the most tactful people I have ever met, and before we parted I drew a smile from him by telling him that he would make his name as A.D.C. to a general in the next war.
After making some alterations with his fountainpen he showed me the itinerary which seemed to cause him so much concern. I found that our programme had been mapped out for days ahead, and that we were due that night at Tainan, the southern capital of the island.
When we arrived back at Takao we had some tea at Koshimura 's hotel and an hour later were in the train again, this time travelling north, through flat, fertile country brilliant with the glorious green of young rice, than which there is no lovelier colour in the world, and broken by sudden ranges of rugged hills. We had had as strenuous a day as the most hardened sight-seer could have desired. We began to look forward to dinner and bed with a sense of anticipation which was mingled with a glorious uncertainty as to what either would be like, for we had gathered from Koshimura that the only European hotel was at Taihoku and that accommodation had been arranged for us at a Japanese inn.