THE EASTERN PROBLEM.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXVI, Issue 17552, 22 April 1919, Page 2

THE EASTERN PROBLEM.

JAPAN AND CHINA. ,

WHAT OF THE FUTURE?

LONDON, April 20

The Daily News, in a yigforous leader, demands that the Peace Conference shall rectify the colossal wrong Whereuader China is suffering owing to the Japanese refusal to quit Shantuag. This raises one of the gravest problems at present before the world, and inyoives the whole future o£ the Far Bast. China's grievance is unanswerable. Japan, whose services to the Allies were inconstdorftble, was extremely vigorous in ;h« capture ot Kaiochow. The Japanese troops landed 160 miles outride the leased German territory, disregarding international law, which the British respected, and the whole of the Shantung Peninsula was occupied, also the entire railway. They refused to withdraw from. Shantung after ihe fall of Kaiochow. The DaPy News says that in the secret treaty betyeen Japan and China the former demanded power to officer the arniy and control the police, finance, mines, and the manufacture of firearms. China, under pressure, agreed. Japan to-day is practically master of Northern China. There is grave danger that the Chinese may fall into Japanese hands and be exploited and militarised. This means the closing: of her vast resources and inexhaustible markets to Europe and Am«rica> and the emergence of a hew military system of incalculable dimensions, which will overshadow Asia and perhaps ultimately wreck the world. : The moment ,to deal with the menace is now. If allowed to develop it will never fee overtaken. The silence hitherto maintained regarding Japan must cease. The issue to be faced is clear ■ —the principle that China belongs to the Chinese, and Japan must go.