The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1929. THE FAR EAST.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 12, 15 January 1929, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1929. THE FAR EAST.

For the cause that lack* assistance, For the tcrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

For the time being the situation in China has been to a large extent cleared up and stabilised by the emergence of a Nationalist Government, exercising practically supreme authority over the whole country. But there is now reason to ask whether the cessation of civil strife has not prepared the way for an even more serious conflict, which has been in progress intermittently for the past generation —the struggle between China and Japan. Ever since the Chino-Japanese war, tjiirty years ago, Japan has pursued resolutely and relentlessly her purpose to secure and maintain a foothold on the Asiatic continent. Hitherto the chief cause of her success has been the weakness and disunion of China. But now that China presents the appearance of unity, and may soon have strength to defend herself, the claims of Japan may at any moment create a dangerous crisis in the Far East.

The rulers of Japan, looking back upon their record since 1895, when the two nations first came into conflict, have good reason to be satisfied with their achievements. They have reduced Korea to absolute submission, and hold it as an outlying province of their empire. They control the southern half of Manchuria, including the great railway, and the most valuable portion of this great province is virtually a Japanese possession. Having expelled the Germans from Kiao-Chau during the Great War, they now hold that strong naval base and the whole province of Shantung, immensely rich in minerals and trade. And In all the great centres of Chinese population and industry they claim commercial rights of immense importance to them, which they are apparently determined to uphold at any cost.

Since the death of Chang Tso-lin removed the last dangerous rival from the path of Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalist colleagues, the revived sense of patriotism and the new spirit of unity that pervade China have brought home to the Japanese with considerable force the difficulties and dangers of their position. At Hankow the Japanese are standing on guard prepared to defend their concession by force. In Manchuria the Nationalists have hoisted their flag and are apparently preparing to assert the rights of China over the whole province and the railway as well. As to Shantung, Japan's' refusal to withdraw has produced a boycott which has for the moment almost paralysed Japanese commercial intercourse with the mainland. It is conceivable that Japan might gain her ends even now by force if she were inclined to use it. But at a moment when "the outlawry of war" is the watcnword of the Western world it would be highly injudicious for Japan to force the issue to extremes, and she will probably be content to bow for the time being to the inevitable and trust to the future for recompense and recovery.