FEAR OF RUSSIA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23331, 25 October 1937, Page 8

FEAR OF RUSSIA

JAPAN FACES RED MENACE NO WISH TO FIGHT CHINA VISITING JOURNALIST’S VIEWS (Per United Press Association) WELLINGTON, Oct. 23. “Japan sees most clearly that in the present struggle in the Far East she is really fighting not against China or General Chiang Kai-shek only, but also against the vast forces of Communism,” said Mr Bunshirow Suzuki, a prominent Japanese journalist, who is visiting Wellington, in an interview. He stated that Japan was actuated more by fear of Russia than by any actual desire to fight with China. “ Soviet Russia, like the great red bear, stands with one paw on Vladivostock and one menacing Manchukuo, and its back feet firmly planted in China ready to jump upon little Japan," he said. Japan had had no yrish to go to war with China; she would have preferred to gain her ends by peaceful penetration. All she wanted was freedom for her trade there to expand, but now she had been forced into a war which, from her point of view, was most inopportune. “ China Unconquerable.” “If Japan really wished to conquer China she would certainly first have straightened out her differences with Russia,” said Mr Suzuki; “but China is unconquerable—she is too vast. Even if she were conquered it would take an army of occupation of 1,000,000 men, to maintain order there. All the talk of Japan wanting to conquer China establish a gigantic Asiatic hegemony in the East is utter nonsense. Japan has not mobilised her full strength for this war. When I left Japan I observed everywhere military forces, but they were composed of men of 40 and 50; they were the country’s last reserve. I questioned one of the generals about it, and he laughed. His, reply was, ‘We cannot waste our best men on a fight with China, and we cannot waste our best troops on a fight with China. We must withhold our right hand.’ “Japan is holding in reserve her youngest and most vigorous soldiers, the flower of her manhood. That shows how systematically Japan is preparing for a war that must surely come with Russia. In the meantime Russia is waiting for Japan to exhaust her manpower and resources.” NOT TURNING COMMUNISTIC CHINESE DENIAL OF CHARGE UNITY IN NATIONAL CRISIS (Per United Press Association) WELLINGTON, Oct. 23. Respecting the charge that China is turning Communistic, the Chinese Consul has received the following cablegram, giving a joint manifesto issued by the Chinese National Chamber -of Commerce, the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce, the Chinese National Federation of Industries. the Shanghai Workers’ Federation, the Chinese Cotton Mill Owners’ Association, the Shanghai Chinese Bankers’ Association, the Shanghai Native Association, and the Shanghai Civic Association:— “ In all democratic countries freedom of political belief is permitted so long as armed force is not resorted to as a /means of achieving political power. “In this period of grave national crisis, the Chinese Communist Party, having abandoned its policy of violence and land confiscation, has openly declared its allegiance to Dr Sun’s three peoples’ principles and has voluntarily liquidated the Soviet Government in China, and placed the former Red Army under the central command of General Chiang Kai-shek. These conditions are quite similar to those which prevail in other democratic countries. What is being practised in China in the way of the issuance of bonds has long been in effect in all progressive countries. It involves no compulsion whatever. On the contrary, all private property enterprises are being accorded the fullest legal protection. “All this, which is well known to foreign nationals resident in China, is sufficient refutation of a groundless charge by Japanese propagandists that China is turning Communistic, a charge that has been deliberately made to mislead world public opinion and camouflage Japan’s real motive of subjugating China.”