The Timaru Herald WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1933. FUTURE OF MANCHUKUO.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19641, 8 November 1933, Page 6

The Timaru Herald WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1933. FUTURE OF MANCHUKUO.

No gaily coloured propaganda inspired by tlie military caste .in Japan, can hide the fundamental wrong the Nipponese expansion policy has perpetrated in China, or prove Japan guiltless of a breach of the law of nations. The presence of the Japanese in Manchukuo to-day is evidence of bad faith and their violation of the principle of justice between peoples. To-day, we are told, foreigners in the new State are fearful of an armed crash between the Soviet and Japan; indeed it is reported that so strongly grounded is the lack of faith in the stability of the new State, that residents with financial interests in the principal trading centres are preparing to leave the country. Obviously it is realised that since Japan carried her operations into China proper at the point of the sword, and rules there by force, any day may produce a clash of international interests that have made a military playground of territory which definite objections imposed by peace treaties placed upon Japan and others, the responsibility of non-interference. It is now a little more than two years since the Japanese invaded Manchuria, and eighteen months since the conquerors set up the “puppet” or “buffer” State of Manchukuo. This, it may be recalled, comprises a territory equal in size to France and Germany put together and has a population of nearly thirty million Chinese. Regardless of treaties, solemnly accepted by the highest authorities in Tokio, Japanese methods and policy in the new State have followed the usual lines of imperialist expansion at the point of the bayonet, and consolidation under pressure of military occupation. It is true that Manchukuo still preserves an imposing facade of independence, nevertheless it is manifestly plain to all visitors who have had the courage to tell the whole truth about the Japanese expansion at the expense of China, that the real rulers of the country are the Kwantung army and the Japanese administrative officials, against both of whom there is a definite native undercurrent of resentment. But the question that interests the outsider is how far the Japanese may be able to reconcile the Chinese inhabitants to their government by securing for them law and order and the possibilities of economic and social development. Every wellinformed observer of the march of diplomatic and military events in the Orient, agrees that the main problem of Manchukuo is the bandit, who is as familiar a figur# there as the gangster is in Chicago. Recent visitors to Manchukuo tell us that the Manchurian bandits are divided into two classes, the “political” or old established bandit, and the new bandit who is either the product of economic ruin or is an ex-soldier. As a matter of fact, the closest investigations have shown that the first result of the Japanese conquest was an enormous increase of the latter class, the total figure in 1932 being estimated at 250,000. Since the creation of the new State, the Japanese, who disclaim any political or military interest in the territory other than a desire to maintain law and order in the Far East, assisted somewhat feebly by the Manchukuo soldiery and actively opposed by the Chinese population, have concentrated on regular military expeditions against the bandits. This is designed shortly to accomplish the extermination of the disturbers of the peace. But despite the fact that the Minister of Justice is planning more and bigger gaols for the reception of those who escape the experience of facing a firing squad, much doubt is expressed by well-informed observers as to the success of Japanese operations, hampered as they are by the latent hostility of the thirty million Chinese who people Manchukuo, and the stronglygrounded resentment at the very presence of the conquering Japanese as virtual rulers of the land. Obviously, Japan prefers the short-term policy expressed in military force, rather than the long-term policy of rooting out the causes of banditry by improved educational and economic conditions. The budget figures in this connection are most illuminating, since the Manchukuo Administration which really voices the policy of the invader, has devoted £10,000.000 to military expenditure, or fifty times as much as is to be expended on education. As a matter of fact, the main economic efforts of the Japanese are employed upon greedily exploiting the country as a producer of raw materials for Nippon’s home industries and to the almost feverish construction of strategic raihvays. Moreover, indignant protests are now reaching the outside world that Japan is planning to violate the letter and spirit of all international understandings by forcing the so-called independent State of Manchukuo to produce opium! But whether Japan has been successful or unsuccessful in producing order, the fundamental wrong which Japan has done to China, remains to be redressed before just and durable peace can come to the troubled and restive corner in the awakening Orient.

MILK IN RELATION TO TEETH. One of the biggest shocks to the pride of the people of New Zealand was delivered the other day by a graduate of Otago University who recently returned to New Zealand after studying home science and home economics in the United States. Addressing a gathering of dairymen, on the relationship of milk to the healthy and normal teeth and bone development, the lecturer said: “I do not wish to injure New Zealand’s dental reputation, but the teeth in this country are probably the worst in the world. The average consumption of milk per person in New Zealand is about half a pint a day, a long way indeed, from the American standard of a quart a day for the child. When It is considered that New Zealand is a dairying country, with the income of a great section of its people depending on the sale of dairy products, it seems little short of pathetic that children should be starving for a diet so essential. Children are drinking tea when they should be drinking milk.” Such a condemnation of New Zealand dietary practices ought to arouse popular concern, particularly in a country which can count its dairy cattle in greater numbers than its population. The appeal made to the people to drink more milk is based on the soundest possible foundation. But why drink more milk? The following reasons for the use of milk from a leaflet issued by the Massachusetts Dairy Bureau, summarises the case for milk in a general way: It Is cheap; It Is nutritious: It Is easily digestible; It is the best food for babies (mothers' milk excepted); It should enter liberally into the diet of children; Many adults would be benefited by the use of more milk; More milk used in cooking would add the cheapest nutrition of its kind; Proper nutrition conduces to efficiency and long life—ln other words to good health. Bearing these things in mind, all authorities agree that milk at a reasonable price is a cheaper source of protein than any of the animal foods except cheese, very cheap meat and salt fish. At usual prices, skim milk furnishes protein more cheaply than any common animal food except salt fish. The protein of vegetable foods is less expensive, but on the other hand, as prepared for the table, is less thoroughly digested. Moreover, it is accompanied by such large amounts of carbohydrates that to secure much vegetable protein in the diet, usually means an excess of carbohydrates. Research investigations have demonstrated that under ordinary market conditions milk, and even skim milk is a cheaper source of body fuel than any of the usual animal foods except cheese and salt pork, but is a dearer one than vegetable foods. Here again, however, milk furnishes ingredients in a form more readily and thoroughly digested than vegetable foods as ordinarily served. Milk, then, is fully as economical a source of nutrients as most animal foods, but is dearer than most vegetable foods. It has the decided advantage of having no waste, requiring no time for preparation, and being more digestable than the vegetable foods. . . Both whole and skim milk at moderate prices are therefore to to be ranked among the most economical of foods; not only when taken as beverages, but also when used in preparing other foods. It is generally admitted that scientific deductions from the figures for food values and prices are confirmed in the ordinary widespread use of milk. But the recognition does not take on a sufficiently practical trend, for if the real value of milk as a food was more generally appreciated, particularly in relation to its contributory importance as a factor in promoting healthy and normal teeth and bone development, as stressed by a graduate of New Zealand’s own school of learning, the drink more milk appeal would meet with an almost universal response.