The Northern Advocate "NORTHLAND FIRST" Registered for transmission through the Post as a Newspaper. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1944. DISTURBING SITUATION IN CHINA.

Northern Advocate, 2 December 1944, Page 4

The Northern Advocate "NORTHLAND FIRST" Registered for transmission through the Post as a Newspaper. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1944. DISTURBING SITUATION IN CHINA.

DESPITE isolated reports of Chinese successes against the Japanese, and of Allied advances in Burma, there cannot be suppressed a feeling that all is not well with the war in China. Indeed, it would be foolish to pretend that internal troubles, no less than Japanese assaults, have been weakening China to a dangerous degree. Mystery attaches A 0 affairs in the household of Chiang Kai-shek, the Chinese Generalissimo. It has been generally understood that Madame Chiang, one of three notable sisters who have been in the van of Chinese leaders, was Chiang’s most able lieutenant, if indeed she was not in reality his “better half.” Recently, Madame Chiang went to the United States. Ostensibly she did so for health reasons. Rumour has had it that the plea of ill-health was used to disguise the fact that she and her husband had separated. The rumour has been strongly repudiated, but there is still speculation as to the cause of Madame Chiang’s arrival in the United States—an arrival under circumstances vastly different from those surrounding her triumphal tour in 1943.

One suggestion is that what is troubling Madame Chiang. in addition to physical annoyances, is her distaste for the growing evidences that China is becoming more and more nationalistic. It i's showing less inclination to recognise that its problems are tied up with enlightenment throughout the world. Madarhe is admittedly far beyond the generalissimo in her interest in the English-speaking world and her realisation that it is only by working with the United States and Britain that China can become a progressive democracy. Her American education has given her a different outlook.

The generalissimo is not altogether at fault, for he is pulled this way and that by war lords who have amassed tremendous power in certain sections and are strongly opposed to democracy. This constitutes one of the principal reasons for weakness in China. Then, it is a fact that the Communists, who form a considerable and powerful element, have not been able to add their full weight in the war against Japan, for the reason that Chiangls party is violently opposed to Communism and would not recognise the Reds, who are violently anti-Japanese. This internal division of China’s armed strength has helped the Japanese immensely, and no doubt has had some disruptive influence in the Chiang household.

Whatever the facts of the case may be so far as Madame Chiang’s sojourn in the United States is concerned, there is no room for doubt about the serious blows Japan has been striking in southern China during recent months. They seem to have succeeded in their attempt to cut China in two, and thus hamstring the Chinese armies by depriving them of the north-south railway system upon* which they were largely dependent. This is allowing the Japanese freedom of movement, which they are developing at high speed. It is only a few days since Chungking admitted that the Japanese were within 20 miles of the border of the province of Kweichow, and only 120 miles from Kweiyang, the point where the old Burma Road swung north to Chungking after running due east through Yunnan. There was a further admission by Chungking that the Japanese were driving through Kwangsi down towards IndoChina, the advance having reached Nanning, little more than 100 miles from the Tongking border. It is not pleasant to read of these advances, nor to hear that the Americans have been forced to destroy valuable airfields which had been constructed at the cost of much labour. This was done to deprive the advancing Japanese of the use of the airfields. In view of these developments, it is becoming easier to understand the purpose of the naval activity that has robbed Japan of invaluable bases in the Pacific. American occupation of these bases, including the capture of Leyte in the Philippines, endangers Japan’s sea communications with China and will in due course provide the Allies with points from which to attack the China coast. The success of the Allies is assured, but the pity is that the defeats sustained by the Chinese in recent months will render long and strenuous a fight which it had been hoped would not be necessary.