INDIA AND THE FAR EAST The Great Possibilities of Southeastern Asia.—The region from India to Japan may be called Southeastern Asia. Its relatively low latitude and heavy summer rains enable enormous crops to be raised. An area of approximately two and a half million square miles in the more populous parts of India and China contains about 600 million people-35 per cent of the earth's population in less than 5 per cent of the total land surface. In the neighboring islands of Japan and the East Indies, and in the peninsulas of Chosen and Indo-China an addi tional million and a half square miles support 150 million more people. Thus in southeastern Asia and the neighboring islands an area scarcely larger than Europe contains 60 per cent more people than that continent, or almost half the world's population.
The agricultural possibilities of this area surpass those of Europe, for in many places two or three crops can be raised each year. The coal and iron of China are scarcely less abundant or easily worked than those of the United States or Europe. The great rivers, the deeply indented seacoast, the innumerable islands, and the comparative. freedom from storms during most of the year provide natural facilities for transportation even better than those of Europe. The rivers from the Ganges to the Hwang Ho might furnish more waterpower than is available in almost any similar area. If the 750 million inhabitants could develop their coal, harness their rivers, build and run their own factories, extract the mineral wealth of the dry regions back of them, and guard themselves against the ever-recurring famines, the world might perhaps see an industrial development even greater than that of the United States or Europe.
Except in Japan the people of southeastern Asia have thus far shown little promise of carrying out such a development. Today the average foreign commerce of China per person is less than one-twentieth of that of the United States. Internal trade is equally sluggish. In industry this vast hive of humanity plays only a minor role, for outside of Japan most of the manufacturing is of the primitive type,—home industries, with here and there a plant for simple manufacturing run by Europeans or Americans in order to prepare foodstuffs or half-manufactured raw materials for use in other countries. Politically about half the people
of this highly favored area are subject to Europe. Three-fourths of the remainder live in China, a country which is feebly struggling to keep its independence and to avoid being completely dominated by Euro peans or Japanese. Siam, though nominally independent, is largely dominated by England and France. Among these 750 million human beings only the 60 million who live in Japan have genuine independence and a large share in the world's business because of their own initiative.
The Far Eastern Question.—With the growing unity of the world and the growing tendency for all active peoples to reach out and use the resources of other regions, it is inevitable that the wonderful possi bilities of India and the Far East should be utilized. If the resources should be even moderately developed, and if the vast population should become even moderately able to purchase goods, the increase in the world's business would add enormously to the wealth of other nations. The realization of this makes the problem of the Far East extremely critical. The problem centers primarily around the question of who shall exercise political and commercial control in China? Shall it be Japan, the only energetic nation in that part of the world? Shall it be the United States, the strongest power that borders on the Pacific? Shall it be Great Britain, France, and the other European powers which already control about half of southeastern Asia? Shall India, China, the Philippines, Java, and the other parts of the Far East con . trol their own destinies? Shall the League of Nations or some other association of the nations exercise control? Or shall China and other nations be self-governing parts of a great world state somewhat as Arizona, Oregon, and Maine are self-governing parts of the United States? In one or another of these ways the Far Eastern Question must apparently be answered. And the answer will be one of the most important factors in determining the course of the world's business. It will influence not only the Far East, but every part of the world.