JAPAN'S ATTITUDE

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 100, 30 April 1938, Page 10

JAPAN'S ATTITUDE

CONFLICT IN CHINA

MENACE OF COMMUNISM

"THE REAL ISSUE"

The growing menace of Communism in the Far East was the real issue in the Sino-Japanese conflict. The Nanking Government was dominated by Russian influence, and the threat to Japan had reached a stage where forbearance was no longer possible, declared Mr. Kuchi Gunji, who arrived this week to take up his duties as the first ConsulrGeneral for Japan in New Zealand, in an interview today. China's policy had always been to invoke the sympathy of the Powers whenever difficulties arose, said Mr. Gunji, and in the present conflict people obroad were being misled by insidious propaganda into regarding Japan as being guilty of unwarranted aggression. "It is quite natural that sympathy should go to the weaker nation in a case such as this. We do not ask the outside world to favour Japan against China itself, but we do ask that if you listen to the Chinese assertions you should also listen to our side." CO-OPERATION REFUSED. China was far from being the united country the outside world was led to believe, Mr. Gunji' continued. That had been the position for innumerable years, and Japan, in her relations with China, had always found it almost impossible to get any satisfaction. For twenty years Japan had been striving! for co-operation with her neighbour, but without the slightest success. The Nanking Government's policy had consistently been anti-Japanese, and matters had reached a stage where Japan had no alternative but to take action in her own interests in foreign countries. It'was ironical that in 1927 a boycott of British goods in China reached serious dimensions, yet today China was appealing to Britain for assistance. The Chinese national sentiment was wholly anti-foreign, but changed in its application according to circumstances.

"Communism is behind every Chinese move, and has been for a number of years," said Mr. Guhji. "The Nanking Government is dominated by Moscow,

and if China becomes wholly Red a grave menace to British and American interests in and around the Pacific will immediately arise. For her own sake Britain should co-operate with Japan to combat Communism in the Far. East. Russia is Japan's enemy, and must remain so." AN ECONOMIC PROBLEM. , The most convenient country for the spreading of Russian ideas was China, where the internal strife of past years had enabled Russian influence to gain ground. Britain had failed to appreciate the menace to her interests in the East if Communism took over the reins in China, but it now appeared that her statesmen were awakening to the danger. Japan had no territorial ambitions in China.. Her foreign aspirations were purely economic, in order to allow of the development of her industries at a rate which would enable her growing population to live. She had little natural resources, and her population was increasing by nearly 1,000,000 every year. Immigration restrictions in other countries forced her to aim at the fullest possible development of industries and build up an export trade which would bring in return the raw materials necessary for her to live.

Mr. Gunji referred to the attitude of waterside workers in Australia and New Zealand in refusing to load scrap metal for Japan, and remarked that it was interesting to note that at Hong Kong Chinese coolies had willingly loaded a Japanese steamer with scrap metal, after the same vessel had come practically empty from Australian and New Zealand ports. That was an illustration of the feeling of a great part of the Chinese people towards Japan. It was noteworthy, also, that in parts of China involved in the present conflict the people worked without resistance under Japanese control. A UNITED PEOPLE. "The Japanese are not skilled propagandists. They have been taught not to lie," said Mr. Gunji. "Throughout Japan there is intense loyalty to the authorities. It has been asserted many times that the Army has forced the Government into the present trouble, but that is untrue. Japan has never been more united." He explained that he had come to New Zealand with the aims 'of fostering trade and establishing better relations between the Dominion and Japan. The Japanese Government held the view that New Zealand, having the same status as Australia, should also ! have a Consul-General. He had spent the last three and a half years in Singapore as Consul-General with jurisdiction over the Straits Settlement, British Malaya, and British North Borneo, and had been recommended for his present position, by Ambassador Debuchi, under whom he had worked in Washington, and who had formed a very favourable impression of New Zealand during his good-will visit. '

Mr. Gunji will have his headquarters in Wellington.