present communications, however, the entire tone has changed.
They are friendly and pleasant, and appear to desire to preserve
friendly relations with us.

This should be especially pleasing, for the Japanese are a fine,
vigorous race of people, whom we cannot but admire for their spirited
conduct in their war with China. It would be a pity if we were forced to
regard them in an unfriendly light.

It is reported that the reason for the change is that the Government has
discovered that the information forwarded to it was misleading and
calculated to give a wrong impression.

It is hinted that the Japanese minister in this country is the innocent
cause of the trouble. It seems that he became very intimate with the son
of Claus Spreckels, the Hawaiian Sugar King.

Young Mr. Spreckels had of course his own ideas about Hawaiian matters,
and told them to the Japanese minister. This official felt that Mr.
Spreckels must be thoroughly well acquainted with Sandwich Island
affairs, and accepted all that he said as fact without attempting to
investigate for himself.

He should not have done this, because, hard though it is for us to
realize it sometimes, there are always two sides to every question, and
all of us, even the fairest-minded, find it difficult to see both sides
with equal clearness and justice.

With the best intentions it was impossible for Mr. Spreckels to look at
matters from a disinterested standpoint, and the minister should have
grasped this fact, instead of sending as facts to his Government
statements that were merely the views of an interested party.

As it was, the Government in Tokio was told that there was not the
slightest fear of the United States annexing Hawaii, that it was all
talk and would never amount to anything, and that Japan could go ahead
and force her immigrants on Hawaii without interference.

As a matter of fact, it now appears that Japan had no hostile plans in
sending her immigrants to Hawaii.

While it is true that many of these men were soldiers, it is stated by
those who have studied the matter that they were not soldiers in the
regular Japanese army, but men who had fought in the war with China.

The enormous strides which Japan has made since the war, and which have
roused the admiration of all her sister nations, cannot have been
accomplished without changes in the thoughts and habits of the Japanese
people.

It seems that the progressive spirit which the war awakened m