WORLD ONE UNIT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 222, 18 September 1937, Page 7

WORLD ONE UNIT.

INTERNATIONAL VIEW. PEACE AND SECURITY. JAPAN'S AIMS IN CHINA. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. "It is essential to look at the world as 'one piece' if we are to gain a reasonable conception of the relation of its parts, and so long as we regard the world as only that territory which is painted red on the map we are taking a lop-sided view," said Dr. G. Jobberns, lecturer in geography at Canterbury College, in an address to the Christchurch branch of the League of Nations Union. Nationalism was the great cause of international difficulties. The nationalist spirit had developed with the growth of richly endowed countries, a big consideration being the distribution of such basic commodities as coal, oil, iron, and power sources. It was not surprising that people without such resources were not content to sit back and watch their more fortunate neighbours "at the feast." The East was making desperate efforts to industrialise, and that would have to be done on the basis of the coal of China and the iron of the Philippines. Japan realised that, and was striving for a place in the sun. Japan had achieved much, and though her methods did not always meet with the approval of the present-day social conscience, they were no worse than other countries had employed in past days. It was an amazing and pernicious thing that the syllabus which directed the .attitude of teachers of geography laid it down that China was not a very important place. Dr. Jobberns hoped that the present focusing of attention in China would show that it was at least as important as any other country. Redistribution of industry was a tendency which might give rise to world peace and safety, but whatever was possible could only be achieved through regarding the world as a single unit.