CHINA TO-DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 115, 18 May 1933, Page 10

CHINA TO-DAY.

ALL EYES ON JAPAN. KEEN POLITICAL STRUGGLE. LETTER FROM DR. KOO. "Our Japanese saviours are so eager to save the Chinese from themselves that tliey are only about 100 miles from Peiping, and I do not know from where my next letter will be written." This striking paragraph concludes a letter received by Auckland friends from Dr. T. Z. Koo, Y.M.C.A. leader in China, who visited New Zealand under the auspices of the Student Christian Movement throe years ago.

"The one topic,of engrossing interest heard on all sides is the invasion of Jeliol by Japan, and what she intends to do afterwards in North China," .-ays the letter, which was written in Peiping on March 20/ "The general feeling here seems to be that despite the heroic and stubborn resistance of the Chinese troops it is only a matter of time before Japan will annex another of China's north-eastern provinces to the territories already ssized by her in Manchuria. Japan's Intentions. "What will Japan do after she has taken Jeliol? Most people here think that Japan will pause at this point to let this fresh act of aggression, taken deliberately after the unanimous adoption of the. report of the committee of Nineteen by the League, have time to sink in and then to see what the other countries will do about it. She Cynically expects that nothing will be done about Jeliol, just as nothing effective was done about Manchuria. If her expectation is realised, then she will turn round, offer some faceisaving device to the League and thus patch up her differences with it. Japan will then continue to be an honourable member of the League, profuse with protestations of her honourable intentions to preserve world peace, until hgr next act of aggression is ready, which people in this part of China feel will not be long in coming.

- "In the political world in China two 2 recent trends arc worthy of note," says - Br. Koo. ■ "The first is that the various i' political camps, hitherto at odds and i ends with eaqh other, are being drawn 1 together by. the common threat of ex--1 ternal aggression, The practical results ; of this co-operation between the political 1 leaders are already apparent in the antiCommunist campaign in Kiangsi and the struggle against Japan in Jehol. A second . trend worthy of mention at this time is that, politically, China is entering the period of reaction which follows all revolutions. This i* most clearly indicated hv the fact that the Kuomintang, the dominant party of the revolution, is no longer even making a pretence of carrying out a programme of revolutionary reconstruction of the nation. Blue Shirt Movement. "The Kuomintang is at the present moment devoting its main energy to a consolidation of all right wing (conservative) forces in an attempt to stamp out all radical or new forces which may later threaten the rule of the Kuomintang in China. The . so-called r. 'Blue Shirts' movement is one manifestation of this tendency. This movement is organised by certain right wing leaders of the Kuomintang as a force to fight against the rising tide of opposition to the party. In nature, it is rather similar to the Black Shirty of Italy, and the coming of the Blue Shirts in China may be regarded as the rise of the Faecisti movement in our country. The means employed by the Blue Shiris against their enemies are the familiar ones of secret police work, the censorship, the courts, and, some even whisper, the assassin's dagger. They are also spending money freely in buying the co-operatioi of indigent intellectuals in their propaganda work. "Underneath this surface of repression, the radical forces are tightening up their organisation, changing their tactics and generally increasing ■ the efficiency of their work. The more obvious forms of I radical propaganda are being abandoned for the more subtle one of nationalism and the Communist, as such, is less in evidence because he is often found masquerading in some form of patriotic activity." But the struggle between the two dominant forces in the political life of China is as keen as ever, and while the Kuomintang has the advantage of being the ruling party with all that that means in power, wealth and prestige, ( I am not sure that it will succeed eventu- 1 ally in breaking the Communists through ■ purely repressive measures. ;

Angry Students. "The Sino-Japanese conflict has also greatly affected the student body of China. There is among them an acute consciousness of the critical times through which their country is passing. At the same time,_ one can detect° among them a mounting sense of anger against their own political leaders, whom they regard as having culpably exposed their country to danger l>y not taking timely and adequate measures of self-defence all these months since the occupation of Mukden by Japan. Some students are adopting an attitude of indifference to hide the sense of despair gnawing away in their hearts. Many are dangerously near the point when the smouldering sense of anger within their breasts will cause them to burst forth in acts of foolish rashness. Others are quietly turning radical and joining the Communists," concluded Dr> Koo.