JAPANESE WELL PREPARED

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 300, 15 September 1937, Page 6

JAPANESE WELL PREPARED

Warfare in Far East

INTENSE RESENTMENT OF

CHINESE

Dominion Special Service.

Auckland, September 14.

Well prepared for warfare, a powerful and confident Japan meets in China an adversary seething with resentment, full of hostility and determined to fight to a finish, according to Mr. T. B. Booth, a retired Hamilton business man, who returned to Auckland by the Maetsuycker after a tour of the East. Mr. Booth travelled fairly extensively in China and Japan, and it was during his visit that hostilities in the form of loose lighting broke out in Peiping. Leaving his ship on the journey north at Kobe, Mr. Booth travelled about 1000 miles overland to Yokohama and Tokio. Everywhere troops were on the move, and at most of the stations through which the train passed detachments were farewelled amid wild scenes of enthusiasm. Men were concentrated in Kobe, and on his return journey south Mr. Booth saw a troopship leaving port heavily laden with men. The vessel was given a raucous farewell, the siren of every ship in harbour blaring as she passed downstream. “It was obvious that Japan’ .d been making provision for a long time for the struggle that has now eventuated, said Mr. Booth, “and she is now well prepared. There were some doubts expressed in the East as to her financial stability, but whether or not this is so there can be no gainsaying the fact that she means business.” Mr. Booth added that last month there was no great military activity to be seen by the tourist, apart from the movement of troops and the exceptionally busy condition of main Japanese ports. Mr. Booth described the beauty of the building in the civic centre iu Shanghai, which was now extensively damaged by the warfare in the city. Everywhere in China there was extreme bitterness against the Japanese intentions, but in military preparations there appeared to be lack of organisation. Old generals who had served in previous engagements were being brought back into service, but it seemed difficult to persuade them to pull together. It was this lack of concerted effort that constituted China’s chief trouble. There was no dearth or fighting men available and, with the general feeling very hostile to Japan, the Chinese had expressed their determination to fight to a finish. There was also apparent throughout the East a strong suggestion of Russian intervention. Extension of the warfare to Shanghai itself was brought about under somewhat peculiar circumstances, Mr. Booth said. The Japanese flagship, moored in the Whangpoo River, near the consulate, had been a proposed target for some Chinese bombing aeroplanes, but, instead, bombs were dropped all over the International Settlement, causing considerable damage and bringing about Japanese antiaircraft reprisals. It was stated that the bombing was caused by a fault in the undergear of the machines.