DAY OF HUMILIATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21772, 11 October 1932, Page 16

DAY OF HUMILIATION

CHINESE IN SYDNEY ‘ JAPANESE AGGRESSIVENESS. (From Ode Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, September 21. ; Remarkable scenes were witnessed., in Chinese quarters in Sydney on Sunday, which was observed by the Chinese as a “day of national humiliation.” It was the first anniversary of the day when the Japanese troops; occupied Muktien, the former capital of Manchuria. About 200 Chinese, men, besides women aqd children, attended the headquarters of the Kuo Min Tang, the Chinese Natio:oalist party. The hall was hung vnth paper streamers marked with huge Chinese' characters expressing grief or patriotic fervour. The Consul-General for China (Dr Chen) was present, Arid’ behind the dais which he and leadling Chinese occupied theTe was a large portrait of Dr Sun Yat-Sen, and this was draped with the flags of the Republic. At 11 o’clock the audience rose and for five minutes stood in silence, with heads bowed, in commemoration of “ the mournful anniversary of the Japanese militarists’ invasion of the three eastern provinces (Manchuria) of the Republic of China.” A pianist and several violinists played a plaintive, Chinese mourning march, and then, in obedience to staccato commands, the assemblage rose and three times bowed in unison before the national flags that draped the portrait of Dr Sun Yat-Sen. While the people stood' the chairman read inringing tones, the will of Dr Sun Yat-Sen, the document by which, a few years before his death, he charged, the people of China to continue unceasingly the work to which he had devoted his life. .

Vigorous speeches were then made. These were to the effect that China had to be prepared to meet force with force. For China it had become a struggle for existence. The Japanese had slaughtered their people, had burned and ransacked their buildings and their cities. They must fight to will back their territory, even though it might take them tens of years. The Consul-General (Dr Chen) ,«aid that Japan, taking advantage of the period of transition, of the fact that a Communist army was causing great havoc in the richest areas of China and. that the Western Powers were troubled bj the depression, had- invaded Chinese territory. The population of Manchuria included 30,000,000 Chinese and 1,000,000 Korean. For the last 80 years China had been losing territory, until to-day the area of China was reduced to twothirds of its former extent. The Japanese considered that if they did not seize Chinese territory now they would never be able to do so later. One of the first buildings the Japanese had bombarded in Woosung in January was the medical college. His son was a student there, but" he immediately joined the army. He was wounded in February, but lie had since recovered and he bad gone back to the army. He, like most other Chinese, was determined that Japan would not have her own way