大陸の日本人に読まれていたセシル・ローズ

戦前の日本は帝国経営のお手本として，ヨーロッパのアフリカの植民地を注視していた。特に，英国の植民地とセシル・ローズについての本は，植民地当局者と中国大陸にいた商人と一般民衆によく読まれた。セシル・ローズへの関心はボーア戦争後ピークに達したが，1920年代においても大陸の有力な日本人ビジネスマンは自分をセシル・ローズとして思い描き，中国での影響力を広げようと奮闘していたという。

Japan's victory in the Sino-Japanese War ... resulted in its acquisition of the colony of Taiwan and greater influence in Korea. As a new imperial power, Japan looked to European colonialism in Africa for both administrative ideas and ideological justification for its rule. Books about British colonial administration and British imperialists such as Cecil Rhodes were translated and read by Japanese colonial administrators, businessmen in China, and the general public. Interest in Rhodes peaked following the Boer War at the turn of the century, but even as late as the 1920s a number of prominent Japanese businessmen in China fancied themselves as Rhodes-like characters, struggling to expand Japanese influence in China as Rhodes had expanded British influence in southern Africa.

http://faroutliers.blogspot.com/2003_12_01_faroutliers_archive.html#107276348843662932