JAPAN’S HOPES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 155, 14 April 1936, Page 5

JAPAN’S HOPES.

SUPREMACY IN ASIA. OBSTACLE IN MANCHUKUO. LONDON, March 28. In the nation which she is building in her puppet State of Mancliukuo, Japan may yet find an obstacle to her hopes of supremacy in Asia. Such is the conclusion reached by Mr T. R. Douglas in an article in the “Contemporary Review.” Mr Douglas bitterly criticises Japanese condonation of the drug traffic in Manchukuo and in North China.

He says that the conditions undei which the peasants are living are worse than ever before, and he predicts that Japanese efforts to mould a new nationalism by propaganda and Statecontrolled education will consolidate powerful agencies calculated to overthrow Japanese domination. “The future of Manchukuo,” he states, “will be determined by the 30,00(1,000 Chinese inhabitants, not, by Japan. Japan does not recognise this, but believes that her propaganda will prevail.” , , The people have been forced to surrender their superficial political bonds with China, but are being encouraged to retain tlieii' cultural links with the past. Teaching in Schools. Chinese classics have been brought back to the school curriculum, and new groups for the promotion o. old ideas are being encouraged under the hea - ing of “Wang-Taoism” or The KinglJ "" School teaching is being directed to the production of a definite typephysically strong, but intellectually incurious. , The Japanese language is compulsory, but English is discouraged. Both Buddhism and Christianity are favoured, provided tha'l they are not connected with Buddhism and Christian institutions in China, because both promote the local spirit. > But no propaganda, the writer asserts, lessens the hatred that the masses feel toward Japan. They blame Japan for their economic sufferings. _ * The unrestricted sale of narcotics is the most notable change in the life of the peasants since 1931. The trade is carried on by Japanese pedlars and shops. Invariably there are 20 to 40 shops in each town selling morphine and heroin in 10-eent doses. The full effect on the life of' the population is unimaginable. Murders and Robberies. The townspeople are accustomed to see corpses lying in the streets in the morning. Robberies have tremendously increased, homes are broken up and families are ruined. It is the free sale of narcotics, how-, ever, rather than the failure to suppress bandits, that has raised a contempt for the Japanese which may do more to retard Japan’s schemes than fear will ever do.

The people have grown accustomed to Japanese soldiers and to the Manchukuo flag, but their latent feelings are revealed by nothing more emphatically than by the widespread dread that Japan will extend “Wang-Taoism” to North China.

In spite of Japan’s protestations of iher need for expansion, there has been only a small influx of Japanese into Mancliukuo, with the exception of officials aud the military.