CHINESE CONFIDENT OF VICTORY

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 93, 13 January 1939, Page 5

CHINESE CONFIDENT OF VICTORY

Schoolmaster’s Opinion

DETERMINED TO DRIVE

JAPANESE OUT

The determination of the Chinese people to drive the Japanese ftorn China was emphasized by Mr. Ng Pun Lup, Canton, in an interview in Wellington yesterday. Mr. Ng, who arrived at Wellington from China this week, has been engaged by the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Chinese Association to conduct the school for Chinese children in Frederick Street. Speaking through an interpreter, Mr. Ng said all classes in China were confident of China’s ultimate victory. Iu the territory they had occupied the Japanese were unable to control the people and were meeting with strong passive resistance on every hand. There would be no peace till all the Chinese areas taken by the Japanese were regained. Commenting on the part played by students in helping the civilian population of China, Mr. Ng said they had been largely responsible for bringing under cultivation large areas in the interior which had not previously been used. This was a big factor in helping to supply food for those in the war areas.

Medical students had been organized and were teaching first-aid to the people. Women students were also teaching girls how to nurse wounded soldiers and were giving instruction in sewing and in making clothing for the soliders.

Mr. Ng said that, though: there were still large numbers of refugees i>i Hong Kong when he left for New Zealand, many of them had gone back to their homes on the borders of the British leased territory, which extended for about 20 miles from Kowloon, on the mainland opposite Hong Kong. This was made possible because of the recapture of Shumchun on the CantonKowloon railway line. The Japanese were in control of Canton, but could not penetrate further inland or toward Hong Kong because the Chinese still had possession of certain parts of the line. Many refugees from areas occupied by Japanese troops had been settled on land in the interior, and doubtless some scheme for putting refugees from the Canton area on the land would also be initiated before long.