FUTURE OF JAPAN.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 June 1923, Page 5

FUTURE OF JAPAN.

LOOKING TOWARDS CHINA. SECURING FOOTING THERE. SIGNS OF EXTENSION. WHERE WILL IT END? In his second article on problems of the Pacific, the correspondent of the London Morning Post discusses the future of China and sets forth how Japan is securing control of the country, a control which is bound to grow more complete unless the western nations assist the Chinese to become thair own masters. (By Arrangement with the Morning PostCopyright by the Australian Press Association.) London, June 11. Chifift is divi' la d into three main camps carrying on a government of their own. They only fall in with the wishes of the Peking Government when it suits themThese three are, roughly: (1) Manchuria and Northern Chihli; (2) Chihli to the Yangtse Valley; (3) Southern China. The leaders of these three military dictatorships do not care much for the socalled Central Government-. There are also vast tracts of China which give no allegiance to these leaders or except nominally, to Peking. On the fringe of the administration of the three leaders hordes of disbanded or unpaid soldiers roam the country exacting a livelihood at the bayonet’s point. Aa the result of this lawlessness the better educated Chinese have transferred their interests to the treaty ports where, judging by the Customs returns, trade, in spite of the anarchy outside, it increasing by leaps and bounds. The Customs administration is practically the only stable form of government in China. CONTROL BY JAPAN.

Railway development by foreign concessions has done much for internal trade. A study of this system will show how~ future penetration must take effect. Until the Washington Conference Japan had one large territorial finger in this commercial pie. By k magnificent gesture she there abrogated her rights and restored the territory to China herself. In Southern Manchuria, however, she has still, as the result of the Russo-Japanese war, control of the Dairen to Changchun railway. Her lease of the Manchurian railway was for 69 years, so for practical purposes she may be said to be in occupation of this sphere. She aims at the permanent control of the great coal and iron fields of Hanyang and the exploitation of Fukien by a railway to be run from Foochow to Nanchang. where there is already a connecting link with Kiukiang and the Yangtse River. For many years the Yangtse Valley was practically a British sphere, but Japan now stands there on an equality with England and America. If she could consolidate her position there and obtain the lion’s share of influence and, if at the same time her fortress of Formosa could effectively dominate ihe rich hinterland of Fukien, she would be well on the way to control China’s trade in the south-east and middle, as well as in the north-east, by her remainng business interests in Shantung and in she north by the Manchurian railway. With these four fingers stretching ever Further into the interior, all that is proStable in China, except Kwangtung and Yunnan, would speedily fall into her grasp. With the Yangtse Valley assured to her, European and American trade at Shangha. would have to fight hard for its position, and the amazing wealth of Szechuan could be exploited in a way no white nation has ever been able to attempt. ATTITUDE OF CHINESE. Now it must be apparent that, with a stable solvent government of China under one head, backed by all the great nations of the world on terms of equality, Japan would have no chance of securing mors than a proportionate share of the riches she can see awaiting her. It is therefore not entirely to Japan’s advantage to wait for other nations to support law and order in China. The Chinese themeselves are by no means unfavorable to the white races; they do not like the Japanese, but education and observation are gradually making the Chinese desirous of asserting China’s place in the councils of the nations. They have an obje<* x lesson in Japan of an Asiatic race which has won for itself a position of equality at the conference table, and even of alliance with England. Chinese opinion is confident of its own power of absorption of all races and she is not adverse to the idea of looking to Japan for assistance against the trade doq|inion of the white ones. Japan, knowing this, sees in the present shattered condition of Chinese politics an admirable opportunity for seizing both the goose and the eggs. What must impress any traveller to-day who arrives in Mukden is Japan’s complete control of this area. She has practicallv captured all the trade of China north of Shanhaikwan up to the Chinese Eastern Railway at Changchun. JAPAN’S ACTIONS HONEST. General Chang-Tso-Lin, the northern leader, is not necessarily willing to be a servant of the Japanese policy, but he has doubtlessly unconsciously made use of Japan’s assistance and begins to find the incubus difficult to shake off. He is in a very sorry position since the Soviet forces have reached Vladivostock and may at any time try to force the shorter transit of the Eastern railway, when Chang-Tso-Lin will have to tackle them himself with a defeat spelling complete surrender to Japanese aims in Mukden, or compelling him definitely to call in Japan’s assistance, which would bind him to them for ever as a quid pro quo. The Japanese cannot be blamed for putting themselves in a position of security there. Their actions have been perfectly natural and straightforward, and that they are not economically in harmony with the future wishes of western nations is not Japan’s fault. If the Occidental nations do not take combined action in restoring China’s fallen fortunes they are opening the door to Oriental action, which will be far more likely to achieve this result.