FUTURE OF ASIA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 5 August 1941, Page 6

FUTURE OF ASIA

JAPANESE VITAL ROLF OF INDIA Edgar Snow, U.S. foreign correspondent, whose “Red Star Over China” was a world best seller a few years ago, has written another important book in his impartial and detailed account of the Sino-Jnpanesc war. called “Scorched Earth.” His story begins with the Japanese occupation of the ancient walled city of Peiping, with the escape of Chinese patriots fleeing to form guerilla bands in the mountains. It ends with an analysis of the effect of the great struggle in the Far East on the nations of the world, and in particular on the effect of Japanese ambitions on U.S.S.R., U.S.A. and Great Britain, states George Johnston reviewing the book for the Melbourne “Argus.” It is a story that every person should read, if only to understand the new mentality and unity and purpose that have come to once-feudal China, if only to appreciate the sufferings of millions in a country where a pound note is a fortune and where “China fights and lives on a decimal point and a cipher.” He recalls the predictions of military experts at the beginning of the l war that “China was not a State but only a geographical expression, and could not last ti months against the

mechanised forces of Japan.” Chin : has stood lip *for 4 years and is stii : taking it! j Snow is no “hand-out” | waiting for official communiques j The material in his book is based o ! the material used in his news stories and he travelled tens of thousand ! of miles all over China getting tha j material. In his thrilling story h ! gives vivid eye-witness accounts o | the incredible and bloody Battle o I Shanghai, the rape of Nanking, am ! the guerilla fighters who have ham •strung Japan’s mightiest offensive.- : He tells of Chungking and the Bunn, j Road, and the mighty mass migratioi of the Chinese to the hitherto uu developed provinces of the wesl where millions now have homes am I where vast hospitals and universities j and mighty factories have been car ! ried on the bare backs of sweatinj I Chinese coolies and set up to keej producing for the new China’s figli j for “democracy, social reform, an< | national independence.” JAPAN CANNOT WIN Snow is convinced that Japan eai never win, but he is convinced als< i that there are great problems ahea< j for both Britain and U.S.A. in Asia I problems that locus as much upoi : India as upon Japan. His summing | up of the future of the Sino J Japanese war in relation to the ac ! tions of the democracies is of tre ! mendous interest, as is the following I conclusion:— “If a durable political front i: ! formed between Britain, the Britisl j Dominions, America, and China, i Japan is economically quarantined I if Britain holds her position ii I Europe, and unless the British force; i in India and Malaya are far weake: ; than they have any reason to be, th< j Japanese Empire would face nothing | less than a catastrophic end. Witl j Anglo-American help and with RusI sian aid, China should eventually be- ; come strong enough to deliver fata ! body blows to the Japanese military machine, while a Japan cut off fron Anglo-American economic suppor must soon undergo unendurable suffering. If the Japanese decided no to fight Britain and America, anc got no political settlement in China the situation would become so serious as to result in a social revolution ir Japan within not more than 1 years. “If, however, the Japanese became convinced that they could but grow weaker in relation to Britain anc America as time went on, and thal the only alternative to economic collapse and revolution lay in an all-or-nothing attack before American armament reaches a deeper pitch, and before we build up a strong political front, the outcome mighi be somewhat different. The army and navy might prefer hara-kiri to surrender.” INDIA’S POSITION VITAL The Burma-China frontier would acquire great strategic importance, and the position of India would immediately become vital. Britain would be obliged to impose on India conscription and full war mobilisation, says Mr Snow. If Britain lost the political support of the Indians her position would be grave indeed. He urges the British now to promise India and Burma post-war independence, with compulsory education and self-government to begin immediately in a role of co-operation with the present Governments in full mobilisation for anti-Fascist war. The only way that Britain and her Dominions could preserve their unity as a political force was to proclaim a policy of emancipation of the colonies as the basis of a world commonwealth of democracies. “It is perhaps the only possible method of giving modified capitalism an extension of life and preserving the British Empire as a political unit reorientated as th e locus of a democratic mobilisation of the world,” considers the author. “It will be suggested that the emancipation of India would mean the end of British ‘unity.’ It may be the only way, in fact, to create it. The strongest allies democratic England has to-day are Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and without the help of a former colony south of Canada she might not survive at all. A free India could become as valuable an asset to England as a free America. As a matter of fact, India is so crucial in the whole Imperialist structure that once it was liberated the rest of Britain’s colonial problems would be simple to solve.” CHINA-JAPANESE PEACE? Mr Snow considers that we should

ill not altogether ignore the possibility of a peace between China and Japar st at some time in the future. If Japar > s . could get a peace which isolated in China from the Western Powers il >s. would be more valuable to her than -jg extensive military occupation, for at China would remain dependent or ie her at a minimum cost. A military of withdrawal from much of China now of that Japan has actually .secured id bases in Indo-China might be quite i- acceptable to the Japanese people :s . who have given at least fiOO.OOC ia of their number as sacrifices for the >n unfulfilled “conquest” of China. The Chinese are not unaware of ,t. significance of the sudden Angloid American interest in their cause, not •s, of the possibilities of a certain polir_ tical bargaining power, igi “If Japan succeeded in making ?p|such a peace with Chungking or with at an important part of the armed id forces she would be free to turn her ! whole attention to winning over i Siam and the Annamites and the j Javanese, and attacking Malaya, 'Burma, and perhaps India, in an at- • tempt to outflank Singapore by seiz[f{l ing its rear. Any such scheme would a | mean a virtual revolution in the | Japanese Army, but nothing could be ruled out to-day simply because it is 3 _ | fantastic. Britain and America could , I anticipate this possibility and elimi'_;nate it by sealing their political ties ~~ j with China."’ The authors advice to his own j ■ country, U.S.A., is for Congress to j authorise a friendship Pact of Deifjmocracy made with Britain and sepwith Canada, Australia, and U I New Zealand. The pacts, signed with 3s ja great deal of speed and noise, ' r j should contain provisos which, if the ' e j United States became involved in the g jpresent war, could automatically be * I implemented in a military way. Such j a pact should also be signed with bj China, and a pact offered to Russia, j with or without military clauses. Mr I Snow was writing before the Nazi at- “ ! tack on the Soviet. He would probrt j ably go further to-dr.y. i Such a policy, says Mr Snow, j could politically disarm the Axis in d I Asia, especially if it were followed n jup by new and bolder actions of economic and political collaboration n j on the widened democratic front, o ; And that, beside being fairly sound “ j sense, is of considerable importance e to this country, as well as to U.S.A.. ■as readers of Mr Snow’s fine book