The Grey River Argus TUESDAY, November 2, 1948 WARNING FROM CHINA

Grey River Argus, 2 November 1948, Page 4

The Grey River Argus TUESDAY, November 2, 1948 WARNING FROM CHINA

gO much has attention been fix-

ed upon the advance of Communism on the European Continent since .the fall of Rumania, Hungary, . and Czechoslovakia, and especially since the start of the blockade of Berlin, that the strides of the Communists on the Asiatic Continent' have tended to be obscured. There now is, however, a more alarming reminder of those strides in the shape of the apparent conquest of Manchuria, with a threat to the adjacent provinces of North China, and indeed the risk of chaos throughout the whole Chinese Empire. Chiang Kai Shek, who has manfully tried for years to unite the Chinese against the threat from the north, is now downhearted in face of the latest victory of th.e Communist forces, predicting that the upshot may ultimately be a third world war. An American rejoinder is that he seems to rely too greatly on the United States, and not enough on the Chinese. Two of the Chinese armies which are reported, in the course of retreat from Mukden, to have been cut to pieces, ■were trained by Americans. but it is said that at the moment the. United States is more concerned to remove its naval personnel at Kaiaochau out of reach of the Communist advance than to go to the rescue of China. It is only natural if the Americans should feel that the whole of the peoples who fear Communism are looking to them. Hitherto Asia has been more for European nations a sphere of influence than for the United Stales, whereas those European nations latterly have been unavoidably giving way to native interests —as exemplified in India, Ceylon. Burma, Indonesia, Lndo-China, and even Malaya. The only European Power, in fact, which has Jet go no former influence is Russia, which actually has been steadily extending her sway, and, as in North Korea, is morally backing the Communist elements whercever they are at work in China. From Persia conies a report of a renewal of frontier trouble with the capture of a post from the Persians by Soviet forces. It might appear that Asia would by Western nations be regarded a more appropriate sphere of Soviet influence than that part of Europe which still remains outside it. Since the time .Britain morally backed Japan in driving the Russians from Manchuria, there have occurred notable changes in the Eastern situation. Not only has Japan gone down, but setbacks have been sustained by Britain, the Netherlands, and France. On the other hand, America has come into the picture with a bigger concern than any of them, and come there up against the influence of the Soviet more closely than in the case of Europe. No doubt this reflection animates Chiang Kai Shek’s virtual appeal for outside help. The Americans are meantime standing to the South Koreans and remain in Japan, and it remains yet to be ascertained how they are going to regard the prospect of possibly the greater part of China becoming subject to Communist, which must spell, Soviet control and domination. If Malaya, moreover, is any criterion, it also is a question as to how Australia and New Zealand should view the prospect of being faced by many hundreds of millions of people under such control. At any rate it seems only reasonable to consider the question of protection, rather than follow the Chinese example of delaying too long. The fall of Mukden and all it implies has a more serious significance for the new world than for the old. Though they meantime may tell the Chinese to help themselves, the Americans doubtless will think twice over the situation, and over its bearing upon the question of defence throughout the Pacific.