THE CRY FOR HELP

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23685, 17 December 1938, Page 21

THE CRY FOR HELP

ro THE EDITOR

Sir,—l have just seen a letter dated November 28, written by the manager of a large business in Hongkong. The contents of this letter would touch the hearts of the hardest. On entering each village, the Japanese demand, In addition to food, 50 cows, 40 pigs, and —worst crime of all—so young Chinese girls. Can anyone believe that this is the twentieth century of civilisation (so-called)? If these demands are not fulfilled the Japanese open fire on the village. It is now the approach of winter in China, and the Chinese themselves, in addition to their other tortures, are short of food and clothing. It is impossible for them to provide the food or the animals. Chivalrous to the last degree, they will defend their women, but alas! they have no guns, depending mainly on rielp from the aeroplanes, and so they have to see their loved ones seized by the Japanese to endure further torture. All boys of from six to ten years are ruthlessly torn from their parents and taken to Japan, there to be trained to fight, when they are old enough, against their,, own flesh and blood, of whom they have lost all memory. And all this is happening actually about 12 miles north of Canton, not to speak of hundreds of villages more remote. Who knows when we ourselves may not be called on to resist similar brutalities To every right-thinking man and woman, old and young, this cry for help must be answered. Otago is never behind in the cause of humanity.—l am, etc., Anti-Nippon.