It is this official concern, morally and financially sup-
ported by the Japanese Government, which now supplies
all or most of the world's Japanese news. The comments
of the China Treaty Port papers on various occasions
evince a tendency to doubt the truth and reliability of
all that now appears from the agencies as emanating
from Tokio. On the other hand, the establishment of
a Japanese official agency and the considerably greater
financial support which such a concern can look for
has enabled the Japanese press to receive a much larger
news service from abroad, and if this should result in the
broadening of the mental horizon of the vernacular
newspapers, the transfer will not have been without
considerable benefit to the country.
" If you cannot get in at the front door, try the back."
This burglarious maxim was a good deal responsible for
the interest which the Japanese took in the Mexican
question in 1913. Although the sentiment between the
two countries had always been simpatica and Japanese
colonizers had looked on Mexico as a possible field for
emigration, nothing beyond the ordinary international
amenities had marked the course of their relationship.
9



130 JAPAN'S FOREIGN POLICIES

With the rise of the Calif ornian question, however, a
different modus operandi was followed. The Japanese
espousal of the Huerta cause had nothing whatsoever to
do with that gentleman's character. That Huerta was
just the type of man to successfully govern Mexico had
nothing to do with the question. Japanese sympathies
went to the Dictator simply and solely because he w^as
anathema maranatha to President Wilson. Japan adopted
the role of agent provocateur in Mexico for the same reason
that she did in China, to make trouble for the powers
that be.
