COST OF WAR

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 124, 19 February 1938, Page 9

COST OF WAR

Japan To Issue Bonds And Raise Taxes FUTURE PROVISION Expenditure Exceeds 1932 National Debt By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Tokio, February 17. The Finance Ministry lias fixed the supplementary army and navy budget w at £282,000,000, according to the “Asahi.” The expenditure in the China campaign to March 31 is estimated at £149,000,000, and it is calculated that it will be increased to £432,000,000 by March 31, 1939. This is to be financed by bonds to the value of £257,000,000 and also by increased taxation. According to a message from London, the Tokio correspondent of "The Times” says that, with the addition of the Japanese supplementary Budget expenditure, the cost of the Chinese campaign exceeds the entire National Debt of 1932. Only one-third of the total has yet been raised. CHINESE RETREAT Japanese Troops Encircle Sinsiang Shanghai, February 17. With Chengchow, on the PekingHankow railway, as their objective, the Japanese have encircled Sinsiang, 40 miles to the north, from which the Chinese are retreating westward. The Japanese have occupied Hweihsien, six miles to the north-west. Negotiations have resulted in Japan agreeing not to send further patrols into the United States defence sector of the Shanghai International Settlement. ( FORLORN HOPE China’s Faith In League Shattered JAPAN’S STRONG GRIP Dominion Special Service. Dunedin, February 18. “One of the most tragic aspects of t.iie present conflict in the East has been China’s forlorn hope of intervention by the League of Nations and the Western Powers,” said Mr. D. A. Grant, of the China Island Mission, when discussing the situation in China with a reporter.

Mr Grant, who is accompanied by his wife and young family, has been stationed at Fukow, in the Honan Province, for the past nine years, and while he has not been actually in the war zone, has gained a deep insight into the mind of the Chinese and their attitude toward the present war. “The simple, lovable people of this immense empire have looked toward the West for asistance in their present ordeal,” he continued, “but nothing has eventuated to justify their great faith in the League of Nations and the justice of foreign Powers. To them has come only disillusionment, for they believed whole-heartedly that the NinePower Treaty would Iff upheld to guarantee China’s sovereignty. The Human Aspect. “Now China thinks that the Western Powers are solely concerned with safeguarding their trade interests, that they regard her as a huge’ commercial market, and forget the human aspect. “It seems to me,” Mr. Grant said, when referring to the' military situation, “that Japan has won all the territory she desires at present, and is confining her activities to obtaining full control of the important central and eastern railways. All she is able ■to do at present is to garrison the main centres and endeavour to consolidate her position in the territory already won.

“She has won about one-sixth of .China, and she already has a great hold on the country. Controlling such, a large coastal area as she does, Japan has a stranglehold on the inland provinces, which are severely handicapped by coastal blockades. “It is a wonder that the Western nations did not realise what was coming and take steps to prevent Japan from gaining such a command of China. They, are certainly paying for their inaction through Japan’s action in seizing Customs revenue. Sheer Murder. “The bombing of towns is sheer murder,” Mr. Grant added. “The denselypopulated cities, with their frail dwellings, allow the residents little chance of escape from death from the air. The Asiatics have the mob instinct developed to a greater degree than the Western people, and, in their terror, they flock together, being killed in 1 their hundreds by deadly bombs.

“The heathen Chinese fear death more than the Christians do, and the air raid alarms fill them with the most pitiful terror. The bombing of towns is certainly one of the most distressing aspects of the conflict.”