CASE FOR JAPAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 137, 13 June 1938, Page 13

CASE FOR JAPAN.

CHINESE CONFLICT.

"STOPPING BOLSHEVISATION"

COMMUNIST STRATEGY DEFINED. '"China's Bolshevisation cannot be stopped except by the action of Japan's armed forces. . . . Japan will never consent to China's being ruled bv the antiJapanese Red Government. . . . This is really a question of life and death to Japan." These declarations were made by the ■ Consul-General, Mr. K. Gunji, in an address in Wellington, when he stated the case for Japan in the present conflict. "The all-important fact," he said, "is that China is an absolutely vital factor in Japan's commerce. In China, Japan has placed over 80 'per cent of our foreign investments. Commerce between Japan's 100,000.000 inhabitants and nearbv China s 450.000,000 is not onlv very natural; it is unavoidable. This is true not only because of their proximity, but Wause each country has something valuable to offer the other. To China, Japan lias to offer a large market for minerals and other products of China's soil. To Japan, C'hinj, has to offer a great market for the products of Japanese industry." Sino-Japaneso relations had never been smooth, said Mr. Gunji. Trade could not be satisfactory in the midst of constant disorder, civil warfare, floods, disease and other calamities. In •a country where xenophobia was traditional and economic warfare in the form of illegal and hysterical boycotts was constantly resorted to trade relations became impossible. In Jajmn's case withdrawal from China was impossible, because to Japan the China trade was vital. Japan's Security Imperilled. The list of Japanese grievances against China is long," declared Mr. Gunji. "It included treaty assassinations, provocative attacks, boycotts and insults. What Japan chiefly fears is China's instability and uncertainty, both political and economic. Japan fears also the development of Communism at its doorway. Yet not only does China harbour Communist armies, but, through political liaison with the Soviet Union and Comintern, chiefly by way of North China and Mongolia, Communism directly imperils the security of Japan. China's huge Communist armies are rabidly antiJapanese. ' JT'st as disease breeds In dirt, so Communism flourishes amidst disorder. Were China internally peaceful and orderly, no one would be more pleased than Japan. But China Is in constant turmoil, and in the country's northern provinces, so close to the Japanese interests in Manchukuo, strong anti-Japanese movements have flourished. Dealing with the manner in which Chin* Wm Bolshevised, Mr. Gunji said that the seventh congress of the Comintern, which was held in Moscow in the summer of 1035, a new strategy to bring about the overthrow of Capitalism was Until then the Communist International, taking an uncompromising attitude against the Imperialist countries, had defined the task of the Communist parties in those countries as that of leading up to a Socialist revolution through bringing about their internal eollarvuv

Hew Communist Strategy. In the new strategy, however, there had been effected a radical change in that it was to concentrate the Communist attacks in a few countries of a particular type, Thus Germany, Poland and Japan liad been designated a* the objectives of their new campaign. Tlie Comintern had, in particular, instructed the Communists throughout the world to give their fullest support to the struggle of the Chinese Red Army with a view to resisting the Japanese advance into China and eliminating her power and influence from the Asiatic continent. Japan and Germany were among the so-called revisionist "countries as distinguished from the status quo countries such as Great Britain, the-United States and France. That classification of the Powers would at once clarify the motives of the Communists' new strategy in making countries in the revisionist group the objects of their attack. In resorting to that measure, the Comintern hoped to win the status quo countries over to its Bide, the idea, being that even if it could not achieve that purpose it might at least keep them from becoming its. enemies. ° After describing the Increase of Nationalist-Communist collaboration in CTiina, Mr. Gunji said that since the outbreak of hostilities, that collaboration had made great strides. The Red Army had been reorganised as a national revolutionary army and was at the Shansi and other fronts. Moreover, all the anti-Japanese and Communist armies and leaders who were in prison had now been set free, and Chou En-l&i and others have joined the Nanking Government and enjoyed growing influence. The conclusion of the ChineseSoviet non-aggression agreement and the increasingly overt assistance of the Soviet Union were but the natural outcomes of such politico-idea logical developments. Consequently, China's Bolshevisation would not be stopped except by the action of Japan's armed forces. I Britain Next? "The main purpose of my explanation is to help in considering whether the success of the Communist party and the consequent elimination of Japanese power and influence from China will bring about a situation desirable for the Powers having rights and interests in China," says Mr. Gunji. "It is true the present objective of the Chinese resistance is Japan. But the Chinese Communists have not given up for good their opposition to Imperialism at large, they have merely suspended it on strategical grounds. If they were successful in resisting Japan, they would next concentrate their endeavours on the objective of resisting Great Britain, and all the anti-Japanese organisations would be converted into anti-British organisations. Such a prediction is not at all groundless, as was indicated by the furious movements against Great Britain in 1927. We may further predict the fact that they will not be content with excluding British influence from China, but will also try to expel her from the whole Asiatic continent. The Chinese Communists were now approaching Great Britain with the promise that they would respect her rights and interests in China and the explanation that China as a market for British capital and commodities would increasingly eiAance its value when national independence was ensured. That was, however, nothing more than a strategic fraud, a fact which was obvious in view of the essential character of the Communist party. The Communist International mn now endear wuiimr io-oree-

throw Fascism by effecting a strategic conversion in policy and by collaborating with democratic powers, but that in no way meant the abandonment of its final purpose, the proletarian revolution.

As a means for accomplishing the revolution, the Comintern had established the strategy of defeating its enemies one by one, and the Chinese Communists, in accordance with the new strategy, had chosen Japan as an immediate objective for their action. "Japan stoutly denies that there lias been indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas in China." said '.Mr. Gun.ji. "Canton is definitely studded with military and anti-aircraft stations. In addition, in Canton is established the biggest depot for the import of munitions, necessitating bombings. Sometimes. however, adjacent places might be affected. To Japan it is a life and death struggle."