EMPIRE BUILDING

Evening Star, Issue 22365, 15 June 1936, Page 14

EMPIRE BUILDING

JAPAN IN MANGHUKUO Japan’s ambitious dreams for Manchukuo are admirably symbolised in the revolutionary change that lias come over the appearance of the new capital, writes W. H. Chamberlain, in the ‘ Christian Science Monitor.’ A new Hsinking is in the making; part of it is already built up. The population has increased rapidly from UO,OUO at the time of occupation to a figure somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000. Of all the large towns of Manchukuo, Hsinking is the most devoid of Western influence. There are almost no foreigners, Japanese, of course, excepted, in the city. There were no important business interests or consulates here before the change; and so far only Salvador has seen fit to join Japan in recognising the independence of Manchukuo.

There are both advantages and disadvantages in the maintenance of the theory that Manchukuo is an independent sovereign State. In some ways non-recognition has been a definite convenience to Japan. A Soviet protest over a border clash, a British or American protest over the oil monopoly, addressed to Tokio. can always be blandly disregarded by means of a reply to tbe effect that the proper address for the protest was Hsinking. On the other hand the dual system of administration that- inevitably grows up when it is simultaneously necessary to preserve a Manchukuo independence facade and to ensure Japanese control in every department is both complicated and expensive. Two men arc often required for the work of one. The language question sometimes raises difficulties, since the Japanese, as a rule, are not good linguists in Chinese and by no means all the higher -Manchurian officials understand or speak Japanese. The administration of the new State is highly centralised. The State Council, which consists of nine members and corresponds in its functions to a Cabinet, initiates legislation, which is ratified by the Privy _ Council. There is no elected legislative assembly. This was equally true before the change of regime: and in view of the fact that at least 00 per rent, of the people in Manchukuo arc illiterate, it would he unreasonable to exnect that democratic institutions could function with much reality or efficiency. Old provincial lines in Manchukuo have been obliterated and 10 new provinces have been created instead of the four original territorial divisions. Fengtien, Kirin. Heilungkiang, and Jehol. The old-fashioned Chinese feudalism, under which each province was in some measure the private patrimony of its local war lord, under the general suzerainty of Chang Tso-lin and his son. Chang H'-mibJiang, has been stampedout and the Central Government has drastically curtailed the financial antonnm-'* which the provinces formerly enjoyed. STILL AN ARMED CAMP. One of the most obvious of Japan’s problems of Empire-building in Manchukuo is the maintenance of public order outside the large towns and off the railroad lines. While conditions have unquestiouably improved by comparison with the state of anarchy and -widespread guerrilla fighting that followed the ousting of Chang Hsueh-liang, considerable parts of the country still suggest the atmosphere of an armed campMore than one Japanese official urged mo not to travel by train at night off the main lines. The luxurious streamlined express, “ Asia,” which covers the distance from Dairen to Harbin in the record time of i3l hours, was continually patrolled by armed guards on the stretch between Hsinking and Harbin ; » forceful reminder that political pacification had not kept pace with economic development. There have boon several bad wrecks on the line between Hsinking and the Korean ports of Rnshin and Seishin, and clashes between Japanese soldiers and bandits,, with moderate casualty lists for ibc former and larger ones, probably, for tbo bandits, are matters of common occurrence. It is the eastern part of Manchukuo, where forests and hills afford natural shelter for the bandits, that is apparntiy most unsettled Yet the country-seat town of Hsin Min, an hour’s ride from Mukden, on the Peiping-Mukdcn line, where I paid a brief visit, was surrounded by an electrically charged barbed wire cordon, designed to prevent any sudden irruption of unsuspected bandits. Several factors account for the persistence of this hnnditisin, despite periodic raids, clean-ups, and small campaigns, carried on by, the Japanese forces. There is. of course, the heritage of the past. Manchuria is a newlysettled part of China, with some of the lawless traditions of the frontier. Banditism has long been an integral part of Chinese rural life. .Sometimes it is a form of protest against intolerable oppression. More often it is a! form of racketeering, not infrequently j connected with the growing of opium. • 'The bandits are the unemployed iu a country that knows no unemployment insurance.

ALSO POLITICAL ASPECT. At. the same time there is a political element in some of the present-day banditism that was absent in the marauding , that prevailed under the Changs. Ordinary highway robbers would not go out of their way to attack small parties of Japanese soldiers, or single out Japanese for killing when they attack trains or distribute antiJapanese leaflets when thev make raids. there arc also two main sources of what may be called political banditism or insurgency, in Manchukuo. In the north-east there are Korean nationalists who have apparently come under Communist influence. Whether they receive direct aid in guns and ammunition from the Soviet authorities is a disputed point. But there seems to be no doubt that they can take refuge in Soviet territory when the pursuit of the Japanese forces becomes too hot. and this naturally facilitates their operations. In the southern part of Manchukuo Chinese Nationalism is the main impelling force of those “ bandits ” who are not merely out for loot. To a considerable extent the agricultural problem and the bandit problem in Manchukuo are closelv linked up; and improvement or deterioration in one is apt to be reflected in the other. As against the building boom that is going on in the tou'ns and the new railroad, industrial, road and harbour construction, one must set stagnation, if not positive retrogression in the agriculture that is Manchukiio’s main industry. Last year’s crop yield was far below average'; this year s crop, while bcllor, is still somewhat sub-average.