STUDENTS AND DEFENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 21, 25 July 1934, Page 11

STUDENTS AND DEFENCE

(To the Editor.) Sir, —In his address to the Navy League on the 23rd, Mr.. J. B. Callan, K.C., disagreed with several of the causes of war alleged by speakers at the students' recent anti-war meeting. We find it equally difficult to agree with the cause put forward by Mr. Callan, when he states, "The hurest way to avoid war is to remove the occasions for ill feeling, and , jealousy, and in a crowded world empty countiies, which do not support tho proportion of mankind that they ought to support, are a perpetual causo of ill feeling and must finally cause an explosion, even if no armament manufacturer is allowed to put a match to tho dangerous explosive." The main thcino of ■ Mr. Callan's address was along these lines, of attributing' modern war to causes of population expansion and immigration difficulties.' ' While there ' aro ■ other statements of Mr. Callan's which wo would like to challenge we feel that this is the crux of the discussion. Wo agree with Mr. Callan when he says, "I sometimes wish that those who talk generalities about 'the ethics of war would.get down to a discussion 'of bur particular situation." ■ vßut we fool that when ho asks, "What would be tho right and duty of New Zealandors if some entirely foreign people not of our race, possibly not of our colour, proposed forcibly to overrun this couiw try}" that he himself is not sufficiently specific. Wo feel that when Mr. Callan uses theso general phrases, he has in mind the • common talk of the aggressive intentions of Japan to meet its population needs. This view is in itself a reflection of the growing antagonism between Great Britain and Japan. That this antagonism exists nobody can deny. But is Mr. Callan's implied opinion correct that tho question of immigration into tho Dominion is a major factor in this growing hostility? In tho twenty-five years following the Treaty of Portsmouth- the Japanese immigrants to Manchuria have numbered" only 200,000/ while Chineso immigrants numbered 1,000,000 yearly! Within the last two years, using as her justification this very propaganda weapon .of "land for her surplus people," Japan has within the last two years conquered a vast territory in Manchuria. But again thero has followed no considerablo exodua of population to Manchuria. What then is Japan's real motive? It is to be found in the teeming natural resources of Manchuria, in the £150,000,000 of Japanese capital invested there, in the fabulous profits that Japanese banks and industries are reaping'from the war and from the exploitation of Manchuria. It is capital, and not emigrants, that Japan wants to export to -China. ■No, the real cause for tho growing rivalry between Britain and Japan must bis sought ■. elsewhere than in the question of population. It is to be discovered in the trade' statistics of South America and British India, as well as of tho British Dominions in every market where Japanese goods can penetrate. The depreciated yen fights the depreciated pound in the struggle for markets. It is obvious that it is this trade and currency warfare that may pass into' ultimate armed warfare. Wo therefore believe that the primary purpose of the British Navy is not to protect our shores from a hypothetical foreign invasion, but to maintain and advance Britain's position in this struggle for markets. Surely it is not for purposes of defending the home shores of Great Britain or ever, those of New Zealand that British cruisers aro stationed in tho ports of China. To protect British investments warships are sent to Chile; to protect British oil interests they are ordered to the Persian Gulf. Aro these for the purposes pf defence? Mr. Callan says: "It is entirely consistent with my conception of .Christianity to resist by force when unjustly attacked.'' On; this ho bases his advocacy of "defence." Would he then concede tho right of tho Indian peasants to arm. themselves against the attacks of British tanks and bombing planes? Or the ' same Tight of tho Samoan people to organise for' national independence when ~to paraphraso the words of Mr. Callan " a foreign people not of their race, not of their colour propose forcibly to overrun their country"? Does Mr. Callan support the policy of defence in these' cases? Or does he only support the defenco of particular economic interestf—l-. am, etc.,