JAPAN'S AIMS IN CHINA

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22338, 28 February 1938, Page 10

JAPAN'S AIMS IN CHINA

Better Understanding Urged OVER-POPULATION AS BASIC CAUSE OF WAR [THE PRESS Special Service.! AUCKLAND, February 27. The need for understanding Japan's point of view in her conflict with China was urged by the Rt. Rev. Dr. J. Ross, a German Jesuit, who is Bishop of Hiroshima, Japan, when he arrived by the Wanganella from Sydney for the Roman Catholic centenary celebrations. As he saw it, he said, the war was one of the effects of Japan's root problem of over-population. Success would ensure a continuance of the essential supply of raw materials and the marketing of Japanese manufactures, but it would bring only a partial solution of the main prob-. lem. Room was needed by the Japanese to expand, and if land was to be obtained peaceably international sympathy would have tp be brought to bear upon the problem. No nation, said Bishop Ross, would suffer self-extinction, and unless they could cope with the rapidly increasing, population self-extinc-tion would face the Japanese. If successful in China, the war would enable Japan to provide her millions with more work, and to this extent it would assist to solve the root problem, but land would still be needed. This land had to have a suitable climate. Manchuria was almost useless for settlement, the extreme cold being little to the liking of the Japanese. Tens of thousands might go there, but not millions. If Japan had to export for these a sub-tropical climate would have to be found. Where it would be, Bishop Ross said, he did not know, but there were thousands of uncultivated acres in Australia.

Toward Japanese activities in China, he said, there seemed to be unvarying antagonism by those countries which had not experienced the problems facing Japan. For the peace of the world and the good of mankind, it was essential that more than one side of the question should be examined. The problem was not beyond solution, he believed, and it was necessary that an attempt should be made, if necessary, by international action, to understand the Japanese viewpoint and to meet their desire for more land.