THE MANCHURIAN QUESTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20405, 6 November 1929, Page 10

THE MANCHURIAN QUESTION.

Even those who know little of the Institute of Pacific Relations must have been lately impressed by its courage in holding a conference in Japan. Its deliberate purpose is to provide a forurn for the frank expression of divergent opinions, and when it decided, after two conferences in Honolulu, to hold the next at Kyoto, there was no blinking the fact that its serviceableness as a melting-pot of racial prejudices would be put to a very severe test. At the outset thero was trouble. The Chinese delegates created a sensation by circulating 'a document dealing with recent events in Manchuria, and making pointed reference to the Shantung and Tsinan incidents and the assassination of Chang Tso-lin. As the Japanese vernacular press at once responded with indignant protests, the sessions began in an atmosphere of tense feeling. Happily, the years of experience in friendly unofficial discussion under the aegis of the institute have prepared the way for dealing with so critical a situation, and as the sessions have proceeded tho good sense of the Chinese and Japanese delegates has enabled debate to take a less inimical turn. Nevertheless, it is not surprising Uiat "the Manchurian question" has brought a sharp clash of opinion. It is a veritable hot-point in the relations of these two Eastern peoples. Manchuria is an integral part of China, yet foreigners have made it an arena of international antagonisms. What has happened recently in eonnection with the Chinese Eastern Railway has brought Russia and China to grifjs. Japan too is

concerned. During the progress of the Russo-Japanese war Japan acquired great influence in the region, and has sinco turned that influence to such account that nearly 200,000 of her poople aro now in Manchuria. With a population increasing at tho rate of 1,000,000 a year, and under necessity, in spite of the rapid development of secondary industries, and an attendant growth of imports in foodstuffs and other raw materials, to find a migratory outlet, she is naturally bent on maintaining this hold. China, on her part, as a strongly nationalist spirit has developed throughout the republic, is equally determined to resist further encroachment, whatever the nature of concessions previously granted to Japan. In this conflict of purposes are all the elements of a serious quarrel, and to encourage frank expression of alien policies, as the institute does, is to invite discord. Yet the record of these conferences shows that a spirit of mutual forbearance can reduce, if not remove, misunderstandings ; and tho latest news from Kyoto strengthens the hope that the interchange of opposing opinions there will lead to a peaceful settlement, by wise action of the Governments concerned, of tho outstanding points in dispute.