The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. MONDAY, JUNE 17, 1935. CHINA AGAIN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 141, 17 June 1935, Page 6

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

MONDAY, JUNE 17, 1935. CHINA AGAIN.

For the cause that lacks assistance. For the wrong that needs resistapce t For the future in 'he distance, And the good that we can de.

There is another acceleration of pace in Japan's policy towards China, and the other Powers, especially Britain, are to be presented with another set o£ extremely difficult problems. When Japan took military action in Manchuria she pushed westward towards Peking, the old capital of China, and in a war that apparently was. not officially a war brushed Chinese opposition aside. Japan is now taking action in North China that may be a prelude to the occupation of the Peking area, and is certainly an infringement of Chinese sovereignty. The demand that troops be evacuated from the capital, and the sending of aeroplanes over the city to see that the demand is carried out, constitute an interference that a Western nation would not tolerate. The Chinese Government, however, is helpless. It is in no position to defy Japan. If it did, North China would speedily be occupied. In fact, there is talk among the Japanese of occupying it in any case. The difficulties of the Chinese Government are many. The authority of Nanking, the seat of government, does not extend far into the interior. The great city of Canton is hostile. There are provinces where governors collect the revenues and spend them. Communism and banditry and financial worries hamper the work of modernising China. American currency policy has added to the difficulty of balancing the Budget in a "silver" country.

While the Chinese Government is struggling for its life, Japan goes on steadily with her policy of encroachment. Last year the Japanese Government enunciated a Monroe Doctrine for Chinese territory, and though demurrers to this were at once entered by Europe and the United States, the claim was repeated this year, when the Japanese Foreign Office announced that Japan would not participate in the joint loan to China proposed by Britain, and would do everything to thwart such international action. Japan, it is explained by Japanese, including our famous visitor Dr. Kagawa, has a mission in China. China must not be let go to ruin for lack of help, but for that help China must I look not to Western Powers or the League of Nations, but to Japan. Lord Lothian stated recently that Japan intended to present to the world before long the accomplished fact of a China under Japanese control, and he called on "the 1 "other, Powers to prevent this by helping China now. Meanwhile the Chinese Government has made an urgent appeal to Britain to stop Japanese interference in North China, and in support has cited the Nine Power Treaty, by which- .Japan and " her co-signatories agreed to respect the integrity of China. The Nine Power Treaty, however, did not avail when Manchuria was occupied and the puppet State of Manchukuo was set up. Britain is in a very awkward position. Her policy is to save China, but she does not wish to quarrel with Japan, and the Japanese Government is well aware of British reluctance to push protests to extremes.