JAPAN’S THREAT TO PACIFIC

Southland Times, Issue 23736, 7 February 1939, Page 7

JAPAN’S THREAT TO PACIFIC

ACTIVITY IN CHINA AS WARNING EFFORTS TO REHABILITATE NATION (United Press Association) HASTINGS, February 5. “What Japan has done to us she can do to others in the Pacific,” writes Madame Chiang Kai-shek, wife of the Chinese leader, in a letter received by the Hon. W. E.* Barnard, chairman of the New Zealand Council for the “Adoption” of Chinese Children. Madame Chiang Kai-shek considers that, since Japan has declared her ambitions to dominate the Far East and the Pacific, the democratic Powers can have no doubt about the fate of their trade and other interests if they permit those ambitions to be realized. ■ She expresses deep gratitude for the financial help given by New Zealanders to distressed children in China. A new China, she believes may be built up in the far west of the country, to which, she says, a great migration is taking place. In her letter Madame Chiang Kaishek states: — “We have received three instalments, one of 22,000 dollars, a second of 21,000 dollars, and a third of 48,000 dollars. For the total of 91,000 dollars I send what appear to be belated thanks and appreciation on behalf of my people and the war orphans who will benefit. The delay in personal acknowledgment of New Zealand’s generosity has been due to my lengthy absence with the Generalissimo on various battle fronts in Hupeh, Hunan, Kiangsi, and Kwangtung Provinces, from which tour we reached Shungking on December 8. “It will interest you to know that about 14,000 war refugee children have been moved from the war zones into the western provinces of Szechwan, Kweichow, and Kwangsi. The majority are in Szechwan. “The refugee children have been divided into workable units of three hundred. As a rule that number comprises an orphanage, which is equipped with the simplest and barest of furniture in some building lent for the purpose. SLOW RECOVERY “Each orphanage has a suitable staff of teachers under the direction of a superintendent. A group of local women forms a committee for the direction of the life of the children. _ In >some instances churches and missions have asked to have the care of one hundred or more refugee children, ana the number requested has been turned over to their care by the central committee, of which I am the chairman. “Now removed as far as possible from the bombings by Japanese raiders the refugee children are slowly recovering from the shock and disturbance of war. This is as the committee has planned, for it is not possible to educate and train children while they are under fire daily. As a rule the orphanages are in the mountains, where good food and fresh air abound.” Madame Kiang Kai-shek charges the Japanese with maintaining a relentless policy to demoralize and impoverish the people they fail to kill. She describes the terrors of air warfare and praises the bravery of the Chinese people in their uneven fight against a more powerfully armed nation. “To combat the demoralization that is likely to affect the country people, I began organizing the women some time ago to work with the people behind the lines, in addition to rescuing children and helping the sufferers,” she adds. “Apart from adult women, we are training girls of middle school age and above to go to villages behind the lines, and there instruct the people what they should do and how they should live. These girls are given courses of instruction and know how to apply themselves to the tasks that will confront them. They have to face great dangers, but they all do it willingly and with remarkable ardour. CAUGHT IN RAID “Recently in Hunan a group of these girls who had just finished training at Changsha reached the first big city on their way the stations appointed to them, and there they were caught in a bombing raid. Three of them were killed and three wounded, the last words of one of the girls being the regretful expression that ‘my work has not yet started, and I have to die.’ The girls who survived at once applied themselves to helping their wounded sisters in the midst of the ruins, found coffins for their dead comrades, and used some of their own garments properly to enshroud them for burial.” The letter adds that while Chinese troops are carrying on guerrilla tactics against the Japanese, a big migration of the civilian population is taking place to the western regions of China. The people are taking with them as much as possible of their handicrafts and they are being assisted to establish new industries. Not only farmers and artisans are pouring into this region, but the colleges and intellectuals are also reestablishing themselves there. The result is that there is a distinct prospect of a new China being built up in this region; which is served by motor roads and in which railways are gradually being constructed. EFFECT ON DEMOCRACIES “The fact that the democratic countries have stood aloof has enabled Japan to give full play to her powers of destruction,” the letter says, and has also enabled her to take full advantage of the production of implements of warfare by those countries which profess to be friendly and sympathetic with China and opposed to the methods and inhumanitarian conduct which have marked the Japanese invasion of our country under the guise of settling a local ‘incident.’ “Japan has now, however, told the democratic nations that she intends to be mistress of Asia and the Pacific, so there now can be no doubts in the minds of the democracies as to the fate of their trade and their interests in the future if they permit Japan to profit by the terrible calamities which she has inflicted upon our country. What she has done to us she can do to others in the Pacific. “Our one consolation is the great sympathy that is shown for us by the peoples of the democracies. That makes our sufferings softer and eases our hardships. At least the generation that is now in its early childhood will know how kind the people of the Western world can be, and outstanding among those people are you of New Zealand, who have been so generous in your help. It is deeply appreciated not only by me and the Generalissimo personally, but by the ">eople of our country.—Yours very sincerely, MAYLING SOONG CHIANG

(Madame Chiang Kai-shek).”