CLASH OF IDEA'S

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 59, 7 September 1937, Page 12

CLASH OF IDEA'S

JAPAN AND CHINA

REAL GROUND OF DISPUTE

At the point of impact China and Japan were two Eastern nations, but the ground of dispute between them was a clash between Eastern and Western ideas, said Dr. G. H. Scholefield, Parliamentary Librarian, address ing the Wellington Rotary Club at today's luncheon.

Japan had adapted Western institutions to her conditions while remaining Asiatic and. Japanese in tradition, religion, customs, language, and social organisation, said Dr. , Scholefleld. China was trying to build La democracy on the Western model but remained Asiatic in culture, language, tradition, and religion. Democracy was more suited to the individualists of China. Good progress had been made, but the country had started late. The corruption existing under the old monarchy had not yet been quite abolished, and the Central Government was too weak as yet to enforce national control. PARTING OF THE WAYS. Why should ; Japan interfere with China? There were two reasons, one economic and the. other ideological. The two countries were at the parting of the ways. Japan, an Asiatic State reinforced by the best of the Western institutions, was under pressure of population .and need of expansion. China, also an Asiatic. State, was trying to model herself on the Western pattern, but had no lack of resources. Japan was in urgent need of raw materials not within her own borders, and she, also needed markets to keep her machines going. The idea that she favoured.emigration was a myth; at the present time, there were only three-quarters of a million Japanese living abroad. Her solution was not in extension of territory as such, but expansion of economic control giving her access to raw materials and markets. • The natural direction of Japan's movement was Asia, Dr. Scholefield continued. That did not appeal to China, which wanted to be left alone, with Tier, abundant territory, labour, and resources to develop her own ideals of government and have her own philosophy of life. She needed fifty years of 'peace. Japan could not wait for resources to become available with the slow development of the Chinese system, and she was afraid also that China was slowly moving apart from the Asiatic orbit into the European. Japan had therefore determined to take forcible possession of China piece by piece; to set up puppet States and mould them her own way. She had already done that in Korea, Manchukuo, and Jehol. . , CAREFULLY THOUGHT OUT. Japan was no longer or timid of the world's opinion. She was carrying out her. State policy carefully thought out and supported by the Emperor, the Army, the Navy, and the people. All the puppet States were non-Japanese, and never would be Japanese. The effect of Japanese control was to give administrative stability and hasten economic development. That was to the material advantage of its people, but it was not favourable to the development of. a democratic form of government; it was nothing more than authoritarian government demanding obedience without question. • , .' i

In carrying out her policy. Japan would meet no real military difficulties, and foreign intervention was out of the question, said Dr. Scholefleld. It was very doubtful, whether she wanted sovereignty in Chinese territory, and there was no reason to suppose that she wanted anything more than economic control. History showed that the British people had done very much the same thing in various'countries in establishing protectorates. The French, also, had done the same thing, and it had generally ended in sovereignty being proclaimed. :

Japan could not subjugate the Chinese; their culture was too deep and strong and their numbers overwhelming. The separate Chinese States would always tend to uniformity, always becoming stronger, and eventually becoming independent of Japan, but they would always be a source of dispute L _