WORLD TOUR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 37, 13 February 1934, Page 5

WORLD TOUR.

COUPLE ON BICYCLE. IMPRESSIONS OF ORIENT. a JAPAN NOT AGGRESSIVE." Returning to New Zealand after what they described as an "educational tour of eighteen months' duration, which included Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Russia, Italy, Japan, China, Malaya, the Philippines, and the Dutch East Indies, Mr. and Mrs. A. M. Richards arrived in Auckland this morning by the Marama from Sydney. A large part of the journey they covered on a tandem bicycle, although in many parts of China and Japan the roads, where they existed, made riding impossible. When the weather permitted they camped by the wayside. The most striking fact about Europe to-day, said Mr. Richards, was the way it had suddenly reverted to religion after two centuries of secular outlook. Fascism and Nazism, as he and his wife had observed them in Italy and Ger- j many, were far more religions, giving a | fanatical worship to the nation-state than economic or political systems. Too much attention could be paid to Nazi excesses, which were after all only a temporary stage of the development of the Third Reich. Actually Nazism had behind it most of the idealism of the German people. But for all that it was a reversion from internationalism and Christianity to a deification of Germanic tulture, race and institutions, and ae luch it was a retrogressive and danferous movement. It was almost unirersally admitted in Britain to-day that It was the harshness of the Allies' peace lerms that had brought Nazism into The • German had |

clutched at it as their only hope to save their economic existence and their national self-respect. "In all countries and among all classes we have found a widespread belief, fostered by the depth and continuance of the depression, that tho system of private capitalism is near its end," continued Mr. Richards. "The only question is whether it i 6 to be superseded hy Communism or by National Socialism — meaning by the latter the 'Corporate State'—private ownership but public control of capital. Except in Australia, the depression showed no real sign of lifting." Japanese "Desperation." Mr. Richards characterised the belief prevalent in Australia and New Zealand that Japan is an aggressive nation as founded on superficial knowledge of the situation. The reason for her recent actions was, ho believed, not aggressiveness but a profound disillusionment with the result of tho Western civilisation she had so hopefully adopted 65 years ago, a political "inferiority complex" and economic desperation. As a result of -the world slump, the Chinese boycott and the policies of economic nationalism now universally pursued, Japan's economic position has become desperate. That desperation has taken political forms owing to the deep Japanese resentment at their less-tlian-Imperial position in the eyes of the great Powers. Externally there has been the Manchurian inivasion. Internally there were threats of Fascist revolution. The power of the military party was now on the wane, but it would revive unless the commercial position improved. "Japan has no thought whatsoever of seizing any portion of Australia or New Zealand," Mr. Richards declared emphatically. "A [slogan that is to be seen all over the i country and which is repeatedly used In the Japanese Press is, 'Japan's part is on the Asiatic coast.' The Japanese are not a colonising people, but they need a large export trade to support their huge industrial population. Given this trade, their standard of living would greatly improve and the first effect of that improvement would be an almost limitless demand for our wool, and, to a less extent, our butter. But the opening of that market to our goods depends first on our affording them a market for theirs." , .

Conditions in China. Mr. Richards said that politically China was in confusion. Tho National Government was caught between the Japanese and rebel generals in the north and revolting provinces and the "Communist belt" in tlic south. Its leaders were able and lionest men, yet little able to make headway against universal corruption and Chinese lack of cohesion. The Communists have consolidated their hold over areas containing 60,000,000 to 70,000,000 inhabitants. These areas were universally acknowledged in China to be the 'best administered in tho country. Meanwhile, despite political troubles, material and cultural progress continued, sometimes slowly and sometimes speedily, but always very surely. I Mr. and Mrs. Richards will travel in the university centres on behalf of the New Zealand Student Christian Movement, which, they represented at regional conferences in Britain, Europe and the Far East.