TWO YEARS’ WAR IN CHINA.

Evening Star, Issue 23352, 23 August 1939, Page 10

TWO YEARS’ WAR IN CHINA.

It ,is clear that tho Tokio discussions are not to bo resumed in tho meantime. Japan’s demands are too far-reaching, giving tho impression that an amicable arrangement with Britain over tho points in dispute is not desired. While refusing tho Japanese claims, Britain is ready to discuss questions relating to modification of the existing treaties. Her suggestion is that all parties to tho Nine-Power and other treaties which govern the. situation in China shall bo enabled at the appropriate time to express their views and make a. contribution to a settlement which should be equitable for all concerned. In the meantime the Japanese invasion of China is being continued with merciless severity. The bombing of towns and the killing of non-combatants go on day'by day. Last month Japan celebrated the completion of two years of the war in China. The celebration took the form of an anti-British demonstration. “ Never in history,” said a Japanese spokesman, “ have the Japanese people borne in their hearts such hatred of Britain.” During tho twenty-four months in which hostilities have raged the Chinese have suffered at least a million and a-half casualties. Practically all the cities known to tho outside world as centres of commerce and industry, education and culture have either been devastated or occupied by the invading forces. The horrors are appalling. It is hardly too much to say that the Japanese invasion has meant the crucifixion of China. According to a writer in the ‘ Spectator,’ between thirty and sixty .million Chinese civilians have been rendered homeless. More than 100,000 have been slaughtered in something like 4,000 air raids, and several times that number have been wounded.

It might ho supposed in the face of what has happened that China would show signs of weakening. There is apparent no such indication. Soldier and civilian alike maintain their racial stoicism. The ruthless drives of the Japanese military forces, the terrible bombing from the air, and the harsh methods of the armies of occupation appear to have had little effect on the mass of the people in making them sue for peace. As fast as one body of men is put out of action another appears and continues the fight with patriotic vigour. Guerrilla warfare is suited to China’s national economy. For one thing it cuts down her military requirements to small arms and ammunition, which are manufactured to a large extent in arsenals in the interior. They are also imported. Looking at the conditions now existing, it would appear that the war has resolved itself into an economic endurance test in which China appears to stand in a favourable position. It is a caso of a country with a population of 100,000,000 trying to subdue one of 400,000,000. The Japanese, by the seizure of the chief centres, hoped to strike a vital blow at Chinese industries. This hope has faded, for factories and plants have been removed to the interior, accompanied by a mass migration of people, which has been described as one of the greatest in history. Two years ago Japan envisaged a quick end to her campaign on the mainland. To her discomfiture she met a new China vastly different from the old in fighting power. The tenacity and endurance of the Chinese, and their determination to win have upset all the calculations of the statesmen in Tokio. Japan’s basic aim is to prevent the industrialisation and modernisation of China and to destroy her newly-won political unity. This aim has been frustrated so far, and the prediction is made that it is the Chinese, and not the Japanese, who will decide the fate of China.