" China Has Saved World "

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 159, 8 July 1938, Page 5

" China Has Saved World "

Depleting Jap Finance And Man-power SYDNEY BUSINESSMAN'S IMPRESSIONS Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Last Night. ‘•China has saved the world from the menace of Japan. Her defence of her countrv is steadily depicting the wealth of Japan both in man power and finance. Jnpan will not he able .to undertake another major war for many yearn. Wo of Australia and New Zealand owe China an especial debt of gratitude, ’’ s-aid Mr. L. .S. Cumming, a Hydncy business man, in an interview at Wellington to-day. He said ho had tra veiled through Korea and Manchukuo *ith the generalissimo and staff of the Japanese Army immediately after the outbreak of ncstilites a year ago, had talked wth General Chiang Kai-shek ? s private secretary and had obtained a considerable insight into the situation in the East.

Mr. Cumming said he went by train through Korea and Manchukuo to Tientsin within four days of the incident which precipitated hostilites. Ho saw trainloads of munitions and equipment, cavalry and infantry and guns being hurried down to Tientsin, and it gave him the impression that Japan was putting into fulfillment a carefullyprepared plan. “ I have had considerable military experience. 1 was trained at Duntroou Military College and served in the Great War," he said. “I know enough about the mobilisation of troops to be itware that it would have been quite impossible to entrain all those troops and supplies within four days. The gcneraJlissimo in charge of tho Japanese Army and his staff shared the observation car of the train with him, said Mr. Curaning. He talked with members of the staff and was told that the war wonld not last three months. While he was in Tientsin fighting was still taking place near the Mareo Polo bridge just outside the city. As he sat dining on the top of Tientsin Hotel, above the music of the Russian orchestra he could hear tho tbander of the guns ten miles distant. The Japanese had taken possession of a large area of land near the racecourse and turned it into a military camp. They erected a hrrracks, cleared the lard for an aeroplane l ase and then marched a thousand cavalry through the streets in order to impress tho Chinese. They r closed tho port to shipping and took possession of the railway end practically isolated Tientsin. Without justification or military pretext they bombed the crowded part of the Chinese quarter, killing hundreds of defenceless non-combatants in ruthless style.

“How a nation that prides itself on Jfs enlightenment and the attainment of civilised standards can repeatedly cause such terrible distress and suffering to a kindly and pea*- c loving people is incomprehensible,'* he said.

“Premier Tanaka of Japan in 192 S declared that Japan’s foreign policy was first the annexation of Manchuria, then the subjugation of China and finally the domination and control of the Pacific; Japan’s great army and i avy was built up for this and held in check until the nations of Europe were engrossed in their own problems. Japan l as been carrying out this policy sin?e. The Japanese pretext of territorial expansion is not borne out by facts. J myself have seen that. In the north of Per islands she has ample room for further development and splendid, fertile lends that would accommodate many more people. There are only 23,000 Japanese—nitd 20,000,000 Koreans who :-e not pleased by Japanese rule —in Korea. Along the South Manchurian inilwav not Japanese but Chiner*' have carried out the development and settlement of the Japanese territory. “As for the talk of trade expansion, there will be no open door for trade if Japan subjugates China. The Japanese are the greatest obstructionists in the world. They will sccuro trade expansion for themselves by closing it down for the rest of the world. That is what happened in Manchukouo and it is what i« happening at Tientsin and parts of the coast in Japanese hands. If it is the aim of Japan to crush the Communist doctrine she claims is dominating China, whv does she not start with its source in Eastern Russia, only 600 miles from the west coast of Japan and much more dangerous to her than Chinn? '“But I do not think Japan will conquer China. Mr. Ray Chang, private secretary to Marshal Chiang Kai-shek, told me tliat China was unlikely to be able to defend the coast against the powerful Japanese navy and army, but inland they were prepared for a determined resistance and their armies were bette- than the Japanese ever imagined."