TOURISTS GUARDED

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 302, 21 December 1931, Page 5

TOURISTS GUARDED

Dreadful Conditions Rule in China. ONSLAUGHTS OF BANDITS. (Special to the “ Star.”) AUCKLAND, December 20. Business combined with pleasure is the object of the tour of Mr Oscar Janson, correspondent of the “ Svenska Journalen,” Sweden, who has arrived in Auckland. Mr Janson is touring the world, and has alreadybeen a year on his travels, during which time he has visited India, China, Japan and Australia. I am looking at things and writing about them for about thirty papers in Sweden,” Mr Janson said. He was in China just before the recent trouble w-ith Japan came to a head, and he found conditions there very strange and somewhat terrifying. “ China,” he said, “is in a pitiful condition. Most of the people are very poor and at least one-half of the huge population of 460,000,000 people are unemployed. There is no work, and many of the people are perpetually half-starved. They are not able to get enough food, and their condition is pitiable.” China was perfectly safe for the tourist as long as he kept to the big cities, but the ravages of robbers and bandits made travel unsafe, and the tourist could never be quite certain that he would reach his destination safely. Mr Janson spent fourteen days in the region north-east of Pekin. Travelling during the night was not permitted, owing to the onslaughts of bandits, and every train was guarded by forty or fifty soldiers. At every station officials asked travellers for their cards, which they kept, so that if the tourist were lost they were able to trace him to the place whence he disappeared. The same conditions obtained in Manchuria, said Mr Janson. “ I can understand the action of Japan in this case,” he added, “ because they have their railway there, and many Japanese families live there. For them to live, the robbers must be subdued. The Government of Japan has asked the Chinese Government to join with it in putting the bandits down, but, of course, China will not do that. Japan cannot keep away. She must have a zone there. She cannot put any trust in China, even though she may say she will keep the country free from bandits, because the Chinese Government has not a great deal of power.” »