JAPAN IN MANCHURIA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 270, 15 November 1932, Page 5

JAPAN IN MANCHURIA

CHINA STATES HER CASE NATIONAL MINISTERIAL STATEMENT. The Chinese Consulate in Wellington has just received from the Foreign Office in Nanking copies of identic notes addressed to Governments of the Powers who were parties to tho NinePower Treaty (excluding Japan), and also an address delivered by Dr. Lo Wen-kan, Minister of Foreign Agairs of tho National Government of tho Republic of China. The notes and the statement above referred to are now made public for general information. From what can be learned from other Chinese sources, it would appear that the Chinese as a people are unanimously convinced that Japan has virtually and in fact seized Chinese territory and usurped China’s sovereign rights in its Three Eastern Provinces, a territory 2,400,000 square miles and inhabited by 30,000,000 citizens of the Chinese Republic. For the present, the only weapon left to the Chinese with which to combat this usurpation is the boycott of Japanese goods and services in China and elsewhere, and that weapon is being and will be used to the utmost power of the Chinese to weild it. In that it was learned the Chinese tho world over are united.

The identical notes to the parties signing the Nine Power Treaty concluded at Washington, D.C., United States of America in 1922, sets out that the Japanese on September 15 recognised the Manchukuo, an organisation created, maintained, and controlled by Japan in the Three Eastern Provinces of the Chinese Republic. The object of this recognition of a Japanese organisation it is said is to enable Japanese troops to bo stationed in these provinces by the establishment of a protectorate which is not required nor sought by the Chinese inhabitants of tho Three Eastern Provinces. Japanese operations in Manchuria dating from September 18, 1931, when Shenyang (Mukden) was attacked, are reviewed and reference made to Article 1 of the Nine Power Treaty by which t>) contracting parties other than China agreed to respect, the sovereignty, independence and territorial administrative integrity of China. A Series of Charges. Tho note to the Japanese Government charges Japan with violation of (ho principles of international law by infringing tho territorial supremacy of the Chinese Republic; violation of the elementary rules of ]axv and th 0 concepts of humanity by killing and injuring Chinese citizens by destroying Chinese public and private property; violation of the covenant of the League of Nations by which members undertook to respect tho territory and political independence of other members; violated the Pact of Paris by whfch war was renounced as an instrument of National Policy in the relations between the contracting parties; violated tho Nine Power Treaty of 1922 (as above referred to); violated the pledge given by Japan itself that “it had no territorial designs in Manchuria,” and violated the repeated injunctions of the League of Nations “not to cause further aggravation of the situation already “brought about by Japan’s invasion of Chinese territory.” Dr. Lo, in his statement dismissed Japan’s plea of self defence extended to territory beyond its own borders as “a pernicious argument.” The KellogBriand Anti-War Pact, he held was signed by 61 signatories including Japan, and it bound them to the pacific settlement of all disputes of whatever nature or origin they might be. Japan could have had recourse to pacific means in international law if it had grounds for complaint against the Chinese Government. This was not done, but instead the Japanese on September 18, 1931, caused its troops to attack the Chinese garrison in Shenyang (Mukden) and extended operations until the whole of Manchuria was under Japanese control and in Japanese occupation.

Dr. Lo described the Manchukuo as “a puppet Government,” of Japan and <loomcd to collapse so soon as Japanese troops are withdrawn from Man'churia. He asserted that the people’s opposition to Japanese domination in Manchuria was gathering momentum day by day. Commerce and industry con’inued to decline since Japanese occupation, and he added: “There will be no peace and prosperity in the Three Eastern Provinces until all the Japanese troops have been withdrawn from places where t hey have no right to appear and until the Chinese Government regains control over land now temporarily lost to us.” China’s Misfortunes.

Dr. Lo, in countering Japanese references to Chinese administration and the activities of Communists, said: “Wo do not pretend to possess a perfect administration, an administration free from those political vicissitudes common to all countries. Nor do wo claim complete success in our work of suppressing Communism thus far undertaken. We also admit, that we have not been exempt from the effects of the universal economic depression. We were harassed last year by unprecedented floods and are still suffering from their damaging consequences.

“Under such circumstances, we had believed that tho Japanese people, like the people of every other nation, would have shoxvn us the greatest sympathy and given us at least moral heip in our stupendous task of rehabilitation. That Japan should take advantage of China’s internal difficulties to launch u premeditated scheme of military ag-

gression yet unheard of in the annals of the modern world was, indeed, bevond human conjecture.” Concluding his statement, Dr. Lo said: “Neither the Chinese Government. or people entertained tho least anti-foreign feelings; but in the present state of affairs, it would be impossible for the Chinese to express cordial and friendly sentiments to the Japanese people. It rested with Japan itself to restore and improve relations between the Chinese ami Japanese peoples. China will never surrender one inch of her territory, nor any of her sovereign rights under stress of military force. . . China will never agree to anv solution of tho present situation which takes into account the puppet organisation in the Three Eastern Provinces established. maintained and controlled by the Japanese military forces. “China is confident that any reasonable proposal for the settlement of tho present situation will be necessarily compatible with tho letter and spirit of the League of Nations, the Anti-War Paet, and the Nine Power Treaty as well as with China’s sovereign power, and will also effectively secure everlasting peace in the Far East.”