Indeed, I will go further, and venture to assert that the statesmen
are far more astute than the experts. The former emphatically know
what they are about, financially and otherwise, and they are assuredly
in no need of any Occidental giving them a lead in the matter. If I
desired to adduce any evidence on that head I need only point to the
_Financial and Economical Annual of Japan_, published every year at
the Government printing office in Tokio. This exhaustive work deals
with the different departments of Government. The section I have
before me, which is for the year 1905, treats of the Department of
Finance and it certainly serves, and very effectively serves, to show
that the Japanese are not, as they so often have been depicted,
children in matters of this kind. This Government handbook is not only
exhaustive but illuminative. Published in English, everything of which
it treats is explained in simple and concise language. There is an
entire absence of that official jargon which tends, even if it is not
intended, to render Government publications in this country
unintelligible to the ordinary reader. The plain man who peruses this
Japanese year-book can at least understand it, and he will, among
other things, grasp the fact that the Japanese have got the whole
question of finance in all its ramifications at their fingers' ends.

The total National Debt of Japan in 1905 amounted to 994,437,340 yen,
or, roughly, L100,000,000 sterling--a sum which the publication I have
referred to works out to be at the rate of 19.548 yen, or about 39s.
per head of the population. Of the debt some L43,000,000 was incurred
to defray a part of the cost of the war with Russia. As an indication
of the estimate of the credit of Japan within her own territory as
well as abroad, I may record the fact that the Exchequer Bonds which
were issued in the country in 1904 and 1905 for the purpose of
defraying the extraordinary expenses of the war were largely
over-subscribed, the first issue to the extent of 452 per cent., the
second 322 per cent., the third 246 per cent., and the fourth 490 per
cent.--a record surely! Abroad Japan's loans were no less successful.
The three issues made in Europe during the war were literally rushed
for by the investing public, with the result that whereas in May,
1904, Japan offered for subscription a loan of L10,000,000, the issue
price being L93 10s. and the rate of interest 6 per cent., in March,
1905, despite