CLASH OF INTERESTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 27, 2 February 1932, Page 3

CLASH OF INTERESTS.

RIVALRY IN MANCHURIA.

LAND OF VAST WEALTH.

FOREIGN PENETRATION.

Modern Manchuria has, on the whole, a chequered history, states a writer in the Melbourne "Herald." Many do not quite realise the country's significance— for it is a land little known outside the East. There it is vitally important, however, as an arena where the policies of Powers arc clashing. Manchuria consists of three provinces, two of which have just declared their independence of Chinese Government. Manchuria is a wonderful country, as large as New South Wales and Victoria combined. In general, it consists of a great undulating plain, similar to Canadian prairie land, and surrounded by magnificant forest belts of oak, elm, poplar, fir, pine and larch. Its soil is tho richest in the world, and its Chinese peasantry among the most industrious and skilled. This tempting territory occupies also a strategic position, which makes it of fundamental importance in Eastern political movements. "He who controls Manchuria controls China," was the- old saying of the Tartars, who proved its truth by dominating that great land; and centuries later, the Manchu dynasty —also a Manchurian people—preached — and practised—the same maxim. From many points of view, as well as geographically, Manchuria is part of China, but on its northern flank lie the territories of Soviet Russia, and on its eastern seaboard a martial, energetic and ambitious Japan. Influx of Chinese. Weak and troubled, rent by internal feuds, misgoverned and misruled, China has never been able to exert that powerful and dominating influence over these rich northern provinces which was necessary if she retain them. But, despite this, another factor has operated in her favour—the immense tide of emigration from her frontiers over the border into Manchuria. With the exception of the United States in the latter pait of the last century, there is probably no example in history of such a tremendous influx of migrants into an undeveloped land. Mass migration from China into Manchuria exceeded, at the peak of the 1 wave, 50,000 a week, and within a few I years, the Chinese population has jumped from 10 millions to 30 millions!

Tho method of penetration, and of acquiring "spheres of influence" was the well-tried and successful ono of railway building. It has been urged against Russia "and Japan that, in establishing themselves in Manchuria they have gone, far beyond their legal rights. But Manchuria would never have reached its present stage of advanced economic development had it not been for the railways, the construction of port facilities, and the exploitation of the coal and iron mines. None of these works would, or could, have been undertaken by China. The modern development of this rich province is due entirely to that foreign penetration, regarding which China is indignant. Japan Sees Rich Prize. To Japan, Manchuria is indeed a rich nrizc. It offers everything that that overcrowded and highly industrialised country needs. . It lies ill a favourable position on the. mainland, adjacent to her own ports and markets; it dominates, strategically, the whole of China; it commands the flank of tho Russian advance eastward; it offers exactly that great undeveloped field for raw material which Japan lacks, and a market, in the shape of 30 million Chinese peasants, for Japan's surplus manufactures. It is a new and relatively under-peopled territory; it is rich beyond the dreams of avarice, and its "potentialities," to use a word much abused in Australia, are unbounded. _ It is quite plain why Japan has invested some 30 millions in this territory. The Southern Manchurian railway gives her the military key to Manchuria. A Japanese cannot live alongside a Chinaman, but each can serve the other in his own particular sphere. The agricultural produce and raw material of Manchuria is of value to Japan; and the 30 milloon Chinese, whose number is increasing by leaps and bounds, offer a splendid home market for her own goods. While, geographically, Manchuria is part of China, however, on paper, and in theory, Japan has a strong case there. The foresight'of her statesmen, the patient and insistent policy of her Government, the boldness of her movements, have brought her to a state where it seems inevitable that she must soon gain complete domination of Manchuria—that Chinese province—by a

policy of entirely peaceful penetration, a peace broken only at times by an occasional brush with Chinese troops.