SYMPATHY WITH CHINA

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

SYMPATHY WITH CHINA

OPINION IN INDIA “India, it should be understood, ' has a profound sympathy with the present distresses of China, and no body of opinion has expressed that i sympathy more eagerly than Con- ' gress,” writes Sir Alfred Watson in I “Great Britain and the East.” | “The people as a whole are be- ! ginning to take the possibility of I Japanese aggression further west very seriously now that the Japanese intention to establish control : over Asia is openly avowed in official 1 circles. One recalls that when Japan j defeated Russia in the Russo-Japan- , ese war, Indians openly rejoiced and I Indian parties adopted a new and firmer note in voicing their political demands. In the Indian view the Asiatic peoples had begun to show that they were the equals if not the , superiors of the Westerners. ; “But in adopting that belief the ; Indians saw the Asiatic nations individually freeing themselves from any Western rule: the vision never | entered their minds that one ] among them would aim at domination over all the others. Peaceful themselves, they did not foresee that Japan would develop imperialistic ambitions, and the assault upon China came as a rude awakening to realities. “Japan now excited dread in India, and very substantial aid has been given by Indians to the Chinese people in their struggle. Bombing on the borders of Burma has appeal ed as an unpleasantly near approach to India itself. . . . “By broadcasting, which spreads information to th e remote parts of India in a manner never before possible, the Indian people have learned immediately what Indian troops have been accomplishing. That has become the theme of talk in every one of the thousands of villages. “Dread of a possible victory of the dictatorship and knowledge of how Indians are helping to make that victory mast improbable is affonprjg the mind of the whole country.” _____