THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1938 HORRORS OF WAR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23139, 10 September 1938, Page 12

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1938 HORRORS OF WAR

For. the third time in a brief period China has sent to the League of Nations a protest against the use of poison gas by the invading Japanese. Quoted in the protest are incriminating documents said to have been found on the bodies of Japanese officers. The quotations give particulars of quantities of gas supplied to the Japanese troops, with instructions for its extensive employment. According to the Note, one such document, issued by the commander of the Japanese left flank at Anking, was marked "Burn after use." Such an order implies a wish to hide evidence of a wrong committed against tho higher standards of international decency. It raises a presumption that Japan is determined to be a law unto herself in her use of means to compel China's submission. Testimony is accumulating in proof of this determination. The continued bombing of open towns, a procedure calculated by its wanton destruction of civilian life and property to spread fear, has been impressively certified. Japan began this conflict with a declaration that the good of the Chinese people was to be served by it; only against Chiang Kai-shek's Government and his wicked soldiery, the announcement ran, was thought of harm entertained. Now, not only by accident or inadvertence are noncombatants caused to suffer, but also by deliberate intention, in order to create a weakening terror. This is the burden of a narrative just published in England. It bears the title "What War Means: the Japanese Terror in China." Its writer, unusually well credentialled, says in the course of it« "I have told this story, because I cannot Hve with it hidden in my heart; and, should anyone believe that tho Japaneso army is in this country to make life better and happier for the Chineso, then let him travel over the area between Shanghai and Nanking, a distance of some 200 miles, and witness the unbelievable desolation and destruction. This area, six months ago, was the most densely populated portion of the earth's surface,'and the most prosperous section of China." > How the change was wrought as told in careful detail. The book is not the work of one man only; the case method is adopted, and a number of qualified observers contribute the results of first-hand acquaintance with the facts. But the compiler unhesitatingly takes responsibility, writing from his own knowledge, supported by "a wealth of corroborative evidence from unimpeachable sources." He is Mr. H. J. Tirnperley, the Manchester Guardian's China correspondent. Last December he found that telegrams in which he and others were reporting to the outside world the outrages committed by the Japanese troops in occupation of Nanking were being suppressed or mutilated by the censors installed by the Japanese authorities in the foreign cable offices at Shanghai. This discovery moved him to set fuller inquiries afoot, and the outcome is a disclosure of a state of affairs he believes "has no parallel in modern history." Two points should be borne in mind when weighing the record: it is written without animus toward the Japanese people and without mercenary motive —royalties derived from sales of it, above the cost of preparing it for publication, are being devoted to Red Cross work in China. Nothing but a strong sense of duty could have prompted and sustained an effort to tell truth so nauseating and harrowing. The inevitable outcome of perusal is indignation, yet the telling is marked by an overriding anxiety about factual exactness. To give even a summary of incidents is impossible here. Suffice it to say that they convincingly exhibit a military policy descending to unexampled savagery as a means of achieving its end. In particular, the compiler makes evident his conclusion that the "fine discipline" of the Japanese army is no more than a myth and that the studied enormities have been practised by officers and police as well as by men of the ranks.

Those associated in the report are named, and their status is fully given. British, American, German and Danish men and women, engaged on international committees at Nanking, bear testimony that is unanimous. Mr. Timperley himself, however, is left to make the deduction. "I have written this account," ho declares, "in no spirit of vindictiveness. War is brutalising, especially a war of conquest, and it would seem to me, from my experience in this, as also in the Shanghai 'war' of 1932, that the Japanese army, with no background of Christian idealism, has to-day become a brutal, destructive force that not only menaces the East but also may some day menace the West, and that the world should know the truth about what is happening. How this situation should be dealt with I shall leave with abler minds than mine to consider." He allows that there is "a bright side to the story" —the wonderful spirit of service shown alike by Chinese and foreign associates in the work of succour carried on by the international groups, and the intimate fellowship enjoyed by all engaging in this work. He adds an enthusiastic word of praise for the "unsurpassed capacity for suffering and endurance" of the Chinese. But the total impression made by the review is one of horror at the systematic campaign of havoc and outrage. In this instance, war has been seen at its worst —nothing more terrible can be imagined—and to know a thing at its worst is to realise to what an irredeemably low level it tends to fall. The utmost to be hoped from this conflict is that it may furnish a lesson so salutary in its stark evil that the will to peace may be invincibly strengthened.