New Order in East

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 145, 22 June 1939, Page 10

New Order in East

JAPAN’S AIMS IN CHINA A plea for the Western world to be patient and give time for Japan to work out a programme of reconstruction in China without condemning it in advance was made recently by Yakichiro Suma, counsellor of the Japanese Embassy, in an address at the University of Maryland. Mr. Suma said Japan would not close the commercial door in China to Western Powers if they recognised the new order, reports the New York Times. “Western nations are justified in their desire for commercial opportunity in the Far East,” he said, “just as Japan is justified in her desire for commercial opportunity in Occidental trade. Japan has no desire or intention to impair full freedom of commercial opportunity in the Far East for any nation which recognises the implications of the new order. “The Far East is at present in the first stages of a great reconstruction. Japan expects to share in the benefits of the new system, for whatever is good for China will, in the long run, be good for Japan. And whatever benefits the two great nations of the Far East will benefit the world as a whole. ’ ’ Japanese Aims Japan’s aims, he said, were tlie complete surrender of authority by the Chiang-Kai-Shek regime and the emergence of a new government based ou new principles, the “abandonment of anti-Japanism as an instrument of political policy, and firm opposition to Communist penetration in China.” “A corollary of these policies,” he said, “is to be the realisation of political, economic and cultural co-opera-tion between China and Japan. “We Japanese are not under the illusion that we can conquer China. That is not our aim, and never has been. A nation of 400,000,000 people cannot be forced against its will. Our purpose is to swab out the sources of infection within China which have poisoned Sino-Japanse relations, relying on the sensible and progressive elements of China to build up the new order. We are the surgeons, and this conflict has been a major operation, but China will heal herseli. “Some people profess to view with alarm Japan’s hopes for the development and modernisation of China. They say that an industrialised China will threaten the present pattern of world economics. They ignore the fact that China’s millions can consume as much their industries can produce, and more, too.” Sees World Trade Helped It was unreasonable to assume, he contended, that the achievement of close economic co-operation between Japan and China would adversely affect the trade of other nations with either China or Japan. “For a number of years,” he added, “Japan has bought more than she has sold in world market, and in particular her trade with the United States has been heavily in America’s favour. Economic co-operation between Japan and China would not aim to fence in a private reserve closed to outsiders. A direct result would be so to improve the economic conditions of these twe nations that each of them could buy more amd sell more in its trade with the world as a whole.”

He declared that in the Far East there would be no discrimination be cause of nationality, race or religion “It is inconceivable,” he declared, “that racial or religious intolerance should be sanctioned or encouraged either in Japan itself or in aDy region where Japan’s influence is paramount. ’’