Why Japan Rushed to War

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22909, 11 December 1937, Page 3 (Supplement)

Why Japan Rushed to War

Marshal Chang-Hsueh-liang with Mr. G. B. Shaw when the famous writer was A entertained in Peiping. fl

that can only happen in an incalculable land like China.

Hero was the biggest figure in China, the man who was in one sense the whole Government of the country, the symbol and hope of the national unity of China, suddenly snatched from the security of his vast armies, a prisoner in the hands of the rebels with the very definite probability that like other generals of that strange land ho would be shot at dawn, if, indeed, his captors would wait so long. While the outer world waited breathlessly for news, Mr. Bertram decided to set forth in search of it. Sian was some 600 miles from Peking as an aeroplane flies, but naturally' that direct route was not open to an unofficial investigator. Trains were available so far, but the country was disturbed and rail service uncertain. There were ice-bound rivers to cross, for it was tho depth of winter. There were, in places, motor-cars. And there were stretches that had to bo covered on foot. Not a Welcome Visitor Pluck and determination obviously lie behind this difficult journey into north-west China, though Mr. Bertram makes light of the dangers. In the unsettled state of the country an unvouched-for foreigner was not a welcome visitor. But his luck stood by him. On December 27 last he and his companion entered Sian. Then he had the incredible luck of making the journey with one Miao, a revolutionary of the intensest fanaticism, a man already involved in actions that had brought on his head the ill-will of tho Nanking Government. He was to end against a wall before a firing party. He is worth looking at. He represents a China of which the outsider has little knowledge. He came from the north. When Japan, began its encircling movement in Northern China, his Manchurian home was destroyed, the men of his family were killed in the fighting, and ho made his way southward with bitter revenge in his heart. There are many similar 'figures in this

MR. JAMES M. BERTRAM is one of the most brilliant products of our New Zealand higher education. He was marked out aa a man of exceptional promise by Mr. Frank Milner, rector of WaitnlH Boys' High School. At Auckland University College he won the highest distinction in the School of English. The Egerton-Ardern regime has formed many outstanding men, and none with greater possibilities than Mr.- Bertram. His career at Oxford fulfilled all the high hopes of bisfteachers and fellow-students. And now - he has come before the wider world' with his first book, "Crisis in China," published by Maomillan.

/ In every sense it is worthy of our expectations. Mr. Bertram has beaten out an unusually effective style. It is severely disciplined, yet full of vitality. It has" detachment and yet throughout there is the pulse of strong conviction and strong feeling. There i 3 no overwriting. His pictures stand out with splendid clarity. But it is no series of separate scenes and episodes The' movement is swift and direct. There is the unity of a strong • purpose and a vigorous, original personality. Only very rarely does he slip into the coterie type of simile, the bane of the intellectual who reckons

that tho names familiar to a specialised gfioup will convey enlightenment to the wider reading public.

He writes, to tell his story, not to display his literary skill. The result is that we are more interested in what he has to say than in how he says it. And that is the highest art. Mr. Bertram has been lucky. He has been long enough in China to find himself and to assess local values. He is no tourist gathering swift impressions on the surface of life as he scampers through. He is not mesmerised by the merely, spectacular. It is truth he is after, not highly-seasoned condiments for jaded palates. He has been able to move on planes of Chinese life and thought inaccessible to the traveller who is usually limited to narrow, and prejudiced sources of information —the sort available in the smoke rooms of any foreign club in the East. New Material He has made friends among the most progressive elements in China today, the students of the universities and the high schools. So he is able to interpret Chinese life from angles of the highest value and interest to the outside world. His material is new, something hard to find in this publicised world. Then he had the luck to be in Peking when, on December 12, 1936, tho Chinese Generalissimo, Chiang Kaishek, was captured by rebel troops near Sian in the north-west. It was a dramatic coup, the sort of thing

Daring Coup by Young Marshal To Unite China's Fighting Forces

REVEALING STORY IN AUCKLANDER'S AMAZING BOOK

Mr. J. M. Bertram's " Crisis in China " Reviewed by TARKOHE

book —men driven out froni their ancestral farms in the north by the Japanese occupation, whoso whole life now foams down a single channel of purpose, to stir China to redeem her lost provinces and thrust the invader back across the sea.

If these concentrated patriots that move so tensely through Mr. Bertram's pages represent the general feeling of the Japan-controlled states in Northern China, Japan is likely to have her hands full for many years to come. When he readied Sian Mr. Bertram found that Chiang Kai-shek had been sent back to Nanking two days before. Not only that, but his captor, with a chivalrous gesture, had accompanied him on tho journey and had thus put himself into the power of the enemies upon whom ho had in-

nations as he had observed them. Yet China was still, in spite of the Nanking Government, a prey to civil war. There was the Government, there were the Communists strongly organised into the Red Armies, there were still local wars here and there, Chinese fighting against Chinese. China could get nowhere while she was broken up into warring fragments.

Salvation In Unity

flicted an intolerable loss of face and who would not be likely to forget it. This chivalrous rebel, who made the tremendous gesture of kidnapping the head of his country, and then celebrated Christmas Day in this amazing Santa Claus fashion, is a figure who may well play a big part in the future of China. Chang Hsueli-liang (these Chinese names are as difficult to remember and identify as presumably our names are to the Chinese—the reader is constantly turning back to find out who is who) had had a chequered history. Son of the supreme war-lord of Manchuria, he had early inherited high command and wealth. x Destined lor Defeat

When ho returned to China the Young Marshal (his familiar name in his army) announced that "the only way to national salvation is to support the Leader." If all. the lines of Chinese policy were concentrated in Chiang's hands there might bo some hope for the unity that alone could save China from further humiliation and dismemberment. This advocacy of central control naturally pleased the Nanking politicians and the Young Marshal was given a high command in the armies mustered to suppress yonce for all the Communists.

The campaign, conducted in person by Chiang, drove the Communists out of their strongholds in central China. The Red Armies fought back savagely and in the end made their escape toward the north. Hero, in Shensi, they established themselves within striking distance of the Japanese armies, who were thrusting themselves further and further west in their campaign to insulate China from contacts with the Russian border. For some time the Communists, who were probably never very strong on the theory of their political faith had been preaching a national unity based on war to the death with Japan. What was the use of quarrelling among themselves about hove China was to be governed, when, if they did not face realities, before long they might have no county to govern? Could not the whole country unite in an anti-Japanese crusade? Even while Chiang was relentlessly driving the Rod Armies north the suggestions of co-operation were being made from the Communist side. Anti-Oommunist Leadei

The Young Marshal at first did his part as leader of an anti-Communist army. But both he and his men were exiles from their own homes through Japanese aggression in Manchuria, and they found little satisfaction in hunting down their fellow-Chinese, and driving them from their humble homes with fire and sword.

Tho Red Armies wore efficient, too, and that appealed to the soldier in him. What magnificent material for a really national war.'So, his thought developed something like this. China's only hope is unity. There must bo ono leader and Chiang is the only possible man. But there must bo one great overwhelming cause upon which all sorts and conditions of fighting men can unite. Surely that cause is there, obvious enough for anyone to see who is not wilfully blind.

| The coming of the Japanese had found him in charge of armies which ho led from defeat to defeat. He had become a drug-addict and his mind was fogged, just when momentous decisions had to be made. Even his tremendous mana was not sufficient to offset the reputation he was Bteadily acquiring as a general destined for defeat. Under a cloud he went to Europe. But out of failure a new man was born. He took himself • in hand and fought tho drug demon. In full command of himself he visited Germany, Italy, and England. He returned to China an eager patriot. The first problem China must tackle was her hopeless disunity. Unity was the first condition. of the success of the European

Chiang arrived at Sian to conduct the further campaign against the Red Armies now established in the North. The Young Marshal and his officers of the exiled Mancliurian volunteers placed their views before the Generalissimo. The Communists, too, are Chinese, they said. The national spirit has begun to flame in them. They have found a higge? issue than tho social

question. They are seasoned and brave. China in its hour of stress should bo proud of them and use them instead of hunting them down like wild beasts. It was, they urged, playing Japan's game to keep civil war going and it was now only Nanking and the Japanese that wanted to keep up the folly of Chinese slaughtering Chinese. Why not recognise Japan as the one great enemy and get to work mobilising all the nation's resources to meet the supreme problem. Everything else could wait. The Greater Task No, said Chiang. Only a united China can hope to face Japan. Tha time is not yet. In the meantime a unity could be forced on China by smashing the Communists beyond all possibility of recovery. Finish this campaign and then the one disturbing factor will be for ever eliminated. Then China could organise for the greater task.' Chiang had for once completely failed to tune .in to his environment. He had no conception of the depth of feeling among the publio and particularly among his armies recruited from the dispossessed peoples of the North. The Young Marshal and his officers decided on drastic measures. If Chiang and Nanking would not listen to reason they would see what a display of force could do. On December 12 Sian was occupied by Chang's troops, the Generalissimo's bodyguard and staff

were captured, not without some casualties. Chiang himself took to the hills. There he was hunted down. He was found huddled in a cleft in a rock, with bare feet* torn by his flight over the stones, and clad only in his night attire.

He asked his captors to shoot him, for the bitterness of his loss of face was heavy upon his spirit. He was told that all they wanted was that he should lead China against Japan. And, mounted on the broad back of one of his captors, the strong man of China was carried down to the high-road.

The Young Marshal now found his difficulties just beginning. Chiang was told the truth as he had not been told it in years. .How was the rebellious army which had taken its commander-in-chief prisoner to explain its action to the world? A telegram to the nation was drafted and despatched, but never published to the world. Here are its salient points: "Our national sovereignty has been steadily weakened and our territory has dwindled day by day. There is not a citizen who does not feel sick at heart because of this. . . Chiang Kai-shek, surrounded by unworthy advisers has forfeited the support of the masses of our people. He is deeply guilty for the harm his policies have done the country. "We advised him with tears to take another way; but we were repeatedly

rejected and rebuked. . . Therefore, we have tendered our last advice to Marshal Chiang while guaranteeing hia safety in order to stimulate his awakening. . '. The Military and Civilians in the North-west unanimously make the following demands: Saving the Nation "1. Reorganise the Nanking Government and admit all parties to share the joint responsibility of saving >the nation. "2. Stop all kinds of civil wars. "3. Release all political'prisoners. "4. Safeguard the political freedom' of the people to organise and , call meetings.

"5. Immediately call a National Sal* vation Conference."

There was a sort of naivete about the whole business that bespeaks men; desperately, in earnest. If Nanking was overwhelmed at the mutineers' action, Japan was even more disturbed. Civil war in" China suited Japan's book. The one thing to fear %vas . such a unity of national purpose as these amateur diplomats were trying to give to China. Anyway, Chiang was Bent back unharmed, his captor with-him as a guarantee of the good faith with which the" mutineers had acted throughout. . ' -

This is the story Mr. Bertram gives the world. What the actual' effects of the coup were on Chinese poacy and on Chiang Kai-shek it is not possible yet to state. But it is significant that Japan lost no time in striking again, with disastrous -results to China. In the meantime *we can be duly grateful that it was the privilege of an Aucklander to pick up the story be» fore the trail was cold and to give it to us in such admirable form.