JAPANESE AIMS

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 50, 28 August 1934, Page 9

JAPANESE AIMS

NATION FOR PEACE

RUSSIA HELD IN RESPECT

RELATIONS WITH CHINA

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON. July 20.

A well-known newspaper correspondent, and one not unknown in New Zealand —Mr. Julian Grande —paid a visit- to the Fast last year and made a study of tho people, politics, and conditions of Japan, Northern China, and Manchuria. Ho has now published a book entitled "Japan's Place in the World," which throws a very clear light on many things which have hitherto been misrepresented or misunderstood. Mr. Griindo emphasises what has often been said before but which does not soem to have sunk home vory deeply in this country—the rivalry between the idealists and the industrial leaders. '' There is a true tug-of-war in Japan today," he writes, "between visionary officers and short-sighted industrialists, and it would be far easier to foretell tho future if the officer class resembled more closely its average prototype abroad and if the leaders in industry had as much voice in the making of policy as is attributed to them abroad. One simplo illustration will throw into relief tho need for close study of military idealism in Japan. It is to he found in the much-discussed State ol' Mancluikuo, where the- military siro in theory strongly opposed to the granting of unconditional concessions to the great industrial and financial concerns of Japan proper. "In contemporary Japan the prepliets and seers and forward-looking leaders are to be found not among- tho foreigntrained big business men or professors, or the comparatively static priesthood, but among the united class whoso tradition i^tßat of tho real Japan unchanged by the- surface mechanical revolution wrought for half a century by outside influences. The most responsible class in Japan today is tho officer class. Therefore it is of prime importance to inquiro how the various Western Powers stand in the eyes of the military and naval clans. REGARD FOR ENGLAND. "Tho fighting clans of Japan certainly hold England in a quite special regard. Surely there is excuse enough iv all this for regret, from the service point of view at least, that tho alliance so honourably observed by Japan no longer provides a constant tie between the- Japanese and British Empires—a fund of honourable dutifulness in word and action upon which to draw in days of strain in civil markets." The author's experiences in tho new State of Manchukuo, as well as in Japan, convince him that Japan has no other ambition in tho Far East than tho securing and maintenance of peace. '' Such an end would not be realisable so long as Manchuria is to bo terrorised by tho Chinese war lords. Japan should rather bo thanked for having rid Manchuria of a regime which offended against every canon of liberty and civilisation. The oppressed Manehurian peoplo have been delivered from thoir tyrants. "That this was Japan's only object may bo seen by the terms of the armistice and poace signed'on May 31, 1933, between tho Japanese and Chinese at Tangku, near Tientsin. Under tho terms of this armistice tho Japanese forces stopped short their operations on the very threshold of Peking and Tientsin at a time when the Chinese forces opposed to them were crushed beyond all powers of resistance. This alone is proof of. the fact that Japan harbours no ambition of conquering Northern China. When everything was at her feet she was content to secure the positions which would allow of the peaceful development of the new State of 3\lanchukuo. NO RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR. "Tho Japanese General Staff," says Mr. Grande, "is fully aware of the fact that Soviet Russia is solidly entrenched, that the Red Army is practically trained and equipped, unlike tho poor Imperial hordes which 'Japan managed with difficulty to get tho better of in 1904; that the Red Army iv Eastern Siberia possesses squadrons of bombing aeroplanes, perfectly capable of turning Japanese coast towns into shambles at twenty-four hours' notice; and finally, that that Red Army and the whole Far Eastern community of Soviet Russia is iv charge of a man whom the Japanese authorities —no mean judges —regard as one of the greatest military intelligences of the age. General Blucher was for two years Military Attache in Japan, and it is to be presumed knows everything thorc is to know about tho organisation of the Japanese Army and its capacity for an offensive in Eastern Siberia. The Japanese General Staff have the highest opinion of General Blucher, and are not likely to give way to any sentimental ideas of 'clearing out the Red rabble/ such as is often advocated in our own cheap Press. Believe me, Japan has nothing to gain by antagonising Soviet Russia, and nobody knows it better than the extremely capable minds who direct tho Japanese General Staff. It is possible that, as somo'popular journalists assert] war between Japan and Russia in tho Far East is inevitable. If it is, it will not be Japan who will go out of her way to provoke it, and whether or no we approve of tho whole confused experiment, it is easy to sco that neither will Soviet Russia go out of her way to provoko Japan. Taking it by and large, wo may say that unless the parties concerned are driven to hostilities b3' forces outside their control or by the machinations of other Powers hostile to Japan, there will be no RussoJapanese war in the Jiear future.''