“CHINA FIGHTS BACK”

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19978, 1 July 1939, Page 15

“CHINA FIGHTS BACK”

STUPENDOUS PICTURE UNITED AGAINST JAPAN OLD GUERILLA STRATEGY "In the event of China failing in her effort against Japanese aggression, it would' be impossible for any of tlie Western powers, to hold their concessions or possessions in China, and their loss would leave New Zealand and Australia at the mercy of Japan. China is fighting our light, and we should 'do all in our power to help Iter settle not only the problems of "her own. survival, but also that of our own serious situation,” said Mr. D C. Purdie, speaking at the fortnightly meeting of the Left Book Club.

The speaker was reviewing and commenting upon the book “China Fights'Back,” by Agnes Smediey. a woman author who spent much time in North China, and was closely in touch with the Bth Route Army, formerly the Communist army of the north.

This corps bad joined forces with the other Chinese armies to throw off the yoke of Japanese aggression arid domination, and one of the remarkable results of the Japanese invasion had been: the (composition of differences which existed, prior to 1931 between the various war lords of China, and' the agreement of these ivar lords to fight under the command of Marshal Chiang Kai-Shek

Fight for Survival

In her book, Agnes Smediey gave a fragment of the stupendous picture of a nation fighting for survival, said Mr. Purdie. She traced the development of Japanese ambitions in the north, and finally over the whole of the Chinese’ possessions, and the earlier heroic battle of the Chinese armies, ill-equipped and badly commissioned ns they were, to stave off the enemy by independent action. The formation of the united front against aggression bad enormously strengthened the threatened nation, however, and by a, system of guerilla warfare, using every form of tactics which would enable them to divide large parties of the enemy and destroy them piecemeal, ithe Bth Route Army had caused enormous losses to the invaders in its sphere of operations. The book gives pen-sketches of the leaders of the Chinese .army of the north, among .them Chu Teh, brilliant commander of troops; Wao Tze-Tung, intellectually the greatest of ihis group and possibly one of -the greatest living men; and Peng Teh Tvvei, whom the author considers, to- be destined for recognition as one of the greatest military loaders in the continent of Asia. Japanese Peace Terms The Japanese terms of peace are described by Miss Smediey as virtual death for Chinese independence, and the stubborn repudiation of efforts to draw the other Chinese leaders from Marshal Ghi-ang Kai-Shek indicates the depth- of conviction with which they are -conducting their war of independence. Ample evidence is available of the worl-cl-conquering ambitions of Japan, and that China is but the first of many victims comprehended -in the Japanese philosophy of domination by war. At the close of this address, Mr. Purdie was accorded a hearty vote of thanks, after answering a number of , questions.