THE SINO-JAPANESE CONFLICT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23333, 27 October 1937, Page 12

THE SINO-JAPANESE CONFLICT

TO THE EDITOR Sir, —I was interested in the remarks of Mr Bunshirow Suzuki which appeared under a Press Association message from Wellington in your columns of Monday. This morning Mr Suzuki has much to say about China, and I suggest that he could graciously have left much of this unsaid. May I remind him and your readers of the utterances in 1931

of the Japanese Premier, Tsuyoshi Inukai (the" Old Pox," as he was called at the time) at Tokio to the representatives of the Associated Press:— Japan covets not one inch of Manchurian territory. ... Why, we wouldn't take Manchuria as a gift. We'd have to look after and protect, all those 30,000,000 Chinese—and feed them. . . . Now the Chinese are peaceful people. They're not warriors by any means, and they really hate to fight. I know the Chinese well. . . . Nor does Japan want any part of China proper. Nobody but a fool would have any such thought. . . . But one of the difficulties in Manchuria is that many Chinese have the belief—the obsession I might call it—that we covet Manchuria. . . .

Will Mr Suzuki be so good as to tell us what happened to Manchuria after this statesman's pronouncement? May I just add the statement of the Premier, Prince Fumimaro Konoye, at Tokio, last August, in connection with the present situation:—" We favour a comprehensive punitive» campaign against the Chinese. . . . The Japanese Government had no intention of resorting to diplomatic means for a settlement of the conflict in China." There are some .peculiar folk in Japan—l am, etc., W. J. Bardsley. October 26.