後藤新平與臺灣總督府顧問制度

Goto Shinpei and the Consultant System of the Government-General of Taiwan

1906年4月臺灣總督兒玉源太郎轉任參謀總長，佐久間左馬太接任總督，自1898年3月即擔任總督府民政長官的後藤新平留任原職。由於中央政府高層力邀後藤擔任滿鐵總裁，原先態度消極的後藤終於主動提出就職條件。獲當局首肯後，1906年11月後藤轉往滿洲發展，仍兼臺灣總督府顧問，並兼關東都督府顧問。1908年後藤有意辭去顧問，同年7月新內閣成立，後藤獲延攬入閣擔任遞信大臣，得以卸任顧問職。儘管擔任顧問不滿兩年（1906年11月至1908年7月），但後藤仍藉此繼續指導後進，維持其在臺灣的影響力。本文考察後藤兼任總督府顧問之經緯，釐清顧問制度成立的脈絡，進而聚焦其擔任顧問期間與新任民政長官的互動情形，對後藤顧問扮演的角色進行個案分析。

In April 1906, Kodama Gentaro, who had served as Governor-General of Taiwan, became the chief of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office. He was succeeded in his position by Sakuma Samata. Goto Shinpei, who had been serving as the Civil Administrator of the Governorate-General of Taiwan since 1898, remained in his position as head of Civil Affairs. The central government of Japan subsequently invited Goto to serve as President of the South Manchuria Railway Corporation. Following close negotiations with the central government, Goto agreed to take on the new job, after it agreed to a set of conditions he had laid down. In November 1906, Goto traveled to Manchuria while concurrently serving as consultant of the Government-General of Taiwan and the Kwantung Governor-General. In 1908, Goto attempted to resign from his consultant position. In July of that year, a new cabinet was formed, and Goto was invited to serve as Minister of Communications. This allowed him to resign from his consultant position, which he had held for less than two years. Although his tenure was brief (from November 1906 to July 1908), Goto was able to retain his influence in Taiwan by directing the actions of his successors. This paper, by exploring personnel affairs in the Government-General of Taiwan in the first decade of the twentieth century, seeks to understand the rise and fall of Goto’s power, as well as its significance. It looks closely at how Goto was able to step down from his position as head of Civil Affairs, while remaining in his role as consultant of the Government-General of Taiwan. This paper, which regards Goto as a case study, also aims to shed light on how the Japanese colonial consultancy system of the time operated.