MANCHURIAN DISPUTE

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 November 1931, Page 10

MANCHURIAN DISPUTE

LONDON PRESS OPINIONS[BY CABLE —PBIBB ASSN. —COPYBIGHT.] LONDON, November 9. The newspapers are giving prominence to the growing chaos in China, including the rioting at Tientsin, and the formation of an Independent Government in Manchuria, with Japanese support. The “Morning Post” applauds what it terms Japan’s stand against, anarchy and brigandage, and says: “Britons strongly object to being dragged into the struggles in Manchuria, which country will become as vital to Japan as India and Egypt are to Britain. Japan has invested large sums in Manchuria, which is one of the chief sources of her raw material and food, while the Chinese Republic is unable to protect foreigners. The United States took the same sort of action in Mexico, without any complaint.” The “Daily Mail” says: There must be no meddling in Manchuria by wellmeaning busy bodies. The. Council of the League of Nations, unluckily, has taken sides in the quarrel, and has decided on a course against Japan. The rights of the case are with Japan. The “Daily Express” points out that the danger of a feud between the yellow races is being diverted into a clash between East and West. Britain does not want to get ’mixed “up in a Far Eastern war.

The “News Chronicle” says: Japan is making war, while she is denying that she is doing so. If she has grievances, they can be redressed; but she is using the instruments which she expressly bound herself not to use, and is forcing the League of Nations Council either to act vigorously or to confess its importance. If the League of Nations cannot deal effectively with this barefaced defiance of its first principles, many fear that it cannot deal effectively with anything.

A DELICATE SITUATION. PARIS, November 9. “Le Journal” states that M. Briand as President of the League of Nations Council, told M. Yoshizawa that a most delicate situation would be created if the next meeting of the Council were to be confronted by the uncompromising attitude of Japan. He said the fapt was that the fighting already had occurred 300 miles from the South Manchurian Railway. TIENTSIN STREET-FIGHTING SHANGHAI, November 9. Shreet fighting broke out early this morning in the vicinity of the Japanese Concession at Tientsin. It is believed that the Chinese troops there are in rebellion, and are attempting a coup d’etat. The Japanese are reported to have sent an ultimatum to the Chinese military to clear the Japanese concession by six o’clock, but the ultimatum was ignored. When the ultimatum was ignored the Japanese began adopting forcible means, and the fighting is believed to be of a serious nature. The Tientsin population are panic-stricken. QUIET RESTORED. SHANGHAI, November 9. Quiet was restored at Tientsin this morning, following the arrival of a brigade of Manchurian troops. There is considerable alarm at Pekin. Many Chinese are burying valuables in expectation of the Japanese advance from Tientsin. CHINA’S ALLEGATIONS. SHANGHAI, November 9. The Chinese are not replying to M. Briand’s Note. Nanking insists that China has faithfully fulfilled the obligations set out in the League Council’s resolution while Japan has not only failed to abide by the recommendations of the Council, but has continuously extended the scope of military aggression, itemising the seizure of salt revenue in Newchwang and fighting at the Nonni River bridge, where it alleges that the Chinese acted on the defensive against a deliberate Japanese attack. It describes the situation at Heilungkiang as very grave. Japan’s intention to occupy Tsitsihar is fully revealed. China hopes the Powers will send representatives to secure evidence “of the flagrant violations of the Council’s resolution by Japan.” REPLIES TO LEAGUE. (Recd. Nov. 10, 1 p.m.) GENEVA, November 9. The battle of Notes over Manchuria continues briskly. Japan, replying to M. Briand, blames the Chinese troops for treacherously attacking the Japanese sent to protect the party repairing the Nonni railway bridge, which the Chinese destroyed in mid-October. The railway practically belongs to the builders, a Japanese South Manchurian company, as the Chinese refused to pay therefor. The Chinese reply accuses Japan of a thrust towards Tsitsihar for the overthrow of established authorities, created a subservient regime. An additional Note alleges that Japan’s seizure of the salt revenue amounts to £654,000, and appeals to the League to uphold the sanctity of the Covenant pf the Pact of Paris.

JAPAN’S INTENTIONS. It is hardly too much to describe the conflict between Japan and China as the most serious event in the Far East since the Rus_so-Japanese war (wrote 0. M. Green (an authority on the Far East), in the London “Sunday Times” on September 27 last). The struggle between Japan, Russia, and China for the control of Manchuria—3so,ooo square miles of some of the richest lands in the world, much of it virgin soil —has long been foreseen as the great issue in the Far East. To Japan, with her poor resources and huge industrial population, Manchuria is life or death. Russia, always instinctively drawing eastwards, has increased her hold on Northern Manchuria alarmingly since she crushed China in the quarrel for the Chinese Eastern Railway in 1929. And China, fired by the new spirit of Nationalism, determined to be mistress in her own house, has been pursuing an active policy of infiltration into Manchuria, which has been making Japan very nervous for her great possessions. The present crisis may well bring this three-cornered contest to a head. It is a vivid illustration of the extraordinary independence of the army in Japan that to its initiative this crisis is entirely due. If the Japanese generals did not engineer the outi break at Mukden on the night of the

18th, as the Chinese aver, they were curiously well prepared to take the fullest possible advantage of it by occupying Mukden and all strategic points, with the ostensible aim of getting satisfaction for the murder in Inner Mongolia of Captain Nakamura. Bad as that outrage was, it is certain that Tokio would have prevented the military coup if it could have done so. Anti-Japanese boycotts sting badly; peaceful gestures pay best in a market so valuable to Japan as China; and conciliation has been the motif of every speech addressed to her great neighbour from Tokio for two years past. But that is not to say that, the stroke having been delivered, Japan will not take the fullest advantage of it. Japari’s investments in Manchuria, by the latest available figures, total £225,600,000. Besides the South Manchurian Railway and the valuable Fushun coal mines, with an annual output of 7,000,000 tons, there are over 1,000 Japanese companies, with an aggregate capital of £57,854,000, engaged in farming, mining, commerce, industry, and transport. , The Japanese population in Manchuria is not above 100,000. Japanese are unwilling emigrants, and will not demean themselves to manual labour alongside the Chinese coolies. Of the latter there is no stint, especially in view of the huge tide of Chinese emigration from the war-troubled fields of Northern China. But this fact adds to the irritation of Chinese politicians and obviously makes it easier for them to hit at Japan by stirring up labour troubles.

■ RACIAL JEALOUSY. China’s bitterness towards Japan, compounded of racial contempt and jealousy of her successes, was roused to frenzy Jby the sanguinary clash in Shantung in 1928, and has been kept alive by numerous incidents, culminating in the anti-Chinese- riots in Korea last Julv. The Kuomintang are convinced that Japan is secretly hostile to Chinese Nationalism. Their eagerness to abolish all foreign privileges in China has been whetted by the apparent readiness of other Powers to give way to them; and, latterly, a violent campaign has been waged in the Chinese Press for the recovery of all Japanese concessions in Manchuria. New railways have been or are being built, to drain business away from Japan, and a new harbour is being constructed at Hulutao to compete with her. port of Dairen. Governor Chang Hsuehliang of Manchuria sees the necessity of keeping on good terms with Japan; but the temper of his entourage and of all the Kuomintang is very different. Japan has never concealed her determination to protect her position in Manchuria at all ebsts. She strengthened herself therein greatly by the famous Twenty-one Demands imposed on China in 1915, and has rigorously stopped China’s civil wars from extending into her preserve. She is not likely to brook any effective interference by the league of Nations., and can find plenty of technical excuses for politely evading it. Some will say that she has deliberately chosen the present moment, when all the Powers are so much occupied with their own troubles, to obtain satisfaction of all outstanding grievances against China. But one cannot judge Japan without fair allowance for her. overwhelming population and the stark necessity of finding food for it. What the Russians will do is yet hid. Their . renewed ■penetration in the north is fresh anxiety for Japan, who also is in deadly fear of Communist propaganda. Will they side with China? Will they cynically propose to Japan to divide the spoils? Or will they pretend to stand aloof, while secretly intriguing in their familiar role of agents provocateurs? Inactive in one way or the other they certainly will not be.