THE CHINESE REPUBLIC

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23631, 15 October 1938, Page 12

THE CHINESE REPUBLIC

The spirit in which the people of China are enduring the ordeal of war through which their country is passing was manifested this week in the restraint marking their observance of the anniversary of. the foundation of the Chinese Republic. It is their inflexible determination, the Chinese Consul for New Zealand, Mr Feng Wang, has explained, to hold no holiday and spare no endeavour until the Japanese invasion of China has been repelled. It is in this attitude, there seems good reason to conclude, that a definite miscalculation on Japan’s part is revealed. Japan entered upon this war with deliberation and every advantage, yet, in spite of her military victories, she is yet so far from her objective, which can only be obtained by the beating down of Chinese resistance, that the struggle appears to have developed into a sheer test of endurance. Figures published in the cabled messages this week as supplied by the Chinese Commander-in-chief in the Hankow area are illuminating. It is claimed that the Japanese casualties during the campaign have readied a total of 750,000, and, which is perhaps more significant, that the losses on both sides are now being evenly maintained, whereas in the Shanghai fighting last year they showed a ratio of three to one against the Chinese. Again, according to an official announcement at Tokio, nearly 70,000 Chinese were killed on the various fronts between August 20 and October 3. If these figures are to be accepted as reliable, and one side is not losing more heavily than the other, it is plain that, unless the Japanese achieve an early success of a kind enabling them to impose terms upon China, their hopes of ultimate victory must be diminishing, because when it comes to the endurance of losses of this magnitude China is in a much better position than Japan to stand the strain for a prolonged period. The wastage of troops must affect

Japan so much the more severely as time goes on that, even while she is able to claim further military successes of importance, her gain must be problematical so long as th« Chinese National Government remains intact and the Chinese nation solid in its refusal to. submit. Japan may go on bending the Chinese resistance, but she has as yet been unable to break it, and as the campaign drags on it must become increasingly difficult for her militarists to justify to the Japanese people the sacrifices involved in the prolongation of the struggle. It is with a strong show of reason that Mr Feng Wang has declared that “ the Jaoanese people should now know that it is utterly futile for their militarists to dream of subjugating China.”