CHINA AND JAPAN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 67, 21 March 1933, Page 5

CHINA AND JAPAN

LULL IN FIGHTING CONFERENCE IN NANKING CHANGED POLICY PROBABLE

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) Received March 20, 7.5 p.m. SHANGHAI, March 20. Despite ihe efforts of |he Chinese Press and official force to create the impression that, the Chinese are con tinulng to offer serious resistance. Japanese and other reports indicate that comparatively little fighting except skirmishing and sniping is proceeding. The 10l in the present hostilities is not regarded as indicating a slacken-

ing of the Chinese determination to resist but is regarded more hopefully in view of the pending significant, Nanking conference between General Chiang Kai-Shek, Mr. Wang ChingWei (President of the Executive), Mr. Yuan (who recently returned from Europe) and Mr. Soong (Finance Minister) regarding the future policy towards Japan. Peking reports state, that 12 medical units are operating in North China tending to the Chinese wounded in the recent fighting, numbering approximately 8000, nearly 4000 of whom are in Peking and Tungcho.w hospitals.

TROUBLE IN SHANGHAI ARREST OF KOREANS. JA PANESE’ POLICE HA 10. SHANGHAI, March 19. As a result, of a raid here by secret .service agents, the Japanese Consular police have arrested three Koreans, seizing three pistols and two bombs. It is believed an attempt was being made, to. assassinate Mr. Ariyoshi, the Japan ese Minister, who, the same night, was dining as the guest of the Rokaiantea Geisha- in a house a short distance from where the Koreans were arrested. The police are also trying to locate the whereabouts of a powerful Korean independence group here, whose object, is the assassin a i ion of-leading Japanese officials. CHINESE AIR FORCE INFERIOR EQUIPMENT MUCH BEHIND JAPAN A X AM ER lUAN ’S CONIMENT. WELLINGTON, March 2(1 During the past two years Colonel Vincent Schmidt, an American aviation instructor, who arrived from Sydney to-day by the Maunganui.- has-been stationed in the southern Chinese province of Yunnan, and in an interview with a Post reporter he, made some interesting observations on 'conditions in China at. the present, time. Colonel Schmidt left Yunnan a month ago on six months’ leave, and ho is going through to ’Tahiti for a spell before completing the trip to the United States.

Colonel Schmidt, said that he was sentto Yunnan at the instigation of' the American commercial attache at Shanghai, and was attached to the 10th. Chinese Route Army. There was an Australian airman acting in an advisory capacity at Canton, and an American school of flying in the north with about ten or fifteen military instructors. The Chinese were slow to learn aviation, but they made good flyers eventually. Their equipment was good enough in its way. but it was much behind that of the Japanese. However, it was improving all the time with the purchase of English, French, German, and Italian machines. “They are airconscious now and are spending a lot of money on aviation," he added, “and in four or five years they will have a strong air fowe.” With the different, Governments in China there was no real united front

'presented to the Japanese, said Colonel •Schmidt, but a change was gradually coming about, and th e common, resistance to Japanese aggression was increasing. In two or three years the position would probably be consolidated to a great extent.

It was unlikely that the Japanese would go south of th e Great Wall, but there was no doubt that they would achieve their objective of establishing a buffer state in Manchukuo. Then forces were as good as any in Europe in equipment, staff work, and air corps. They were quite ruthless in warfare and did not hesitate to bomb from the air, even at the cost of many civilian lives, to achieve their objective. Lite meant comparatively little to the Chinese or the Japanese, and they saw nothing wrong with their metrods of warfare.

Colonel Schmidt said that he had [seen a good deal of civil war in China. ! The people in the south were more or Jess indifferent to what was happening in the north. Foreigners were not welcomed in any part of China. It was felt that their only object was to exploit the country, which the Chinese wanted for themselves. The feeling of nationalism was growring, and foreigners found it hard to get a footing. There was. however, a difference in the case of military experts who could teach the. Chinese how to improve their methods of warfare. One of the first questions Colonel Schmidt asked on arrival was whether Sir Charles Kingsford Smith was in Wellington, and, on receiving an answer in the affirmative, he said that he had been stationed at Roosevelt Field when the famous aviator concluded his flight across the Atlantic in the Southern Cross in 1930. He had met Sir Charles there and. hoped to renew the accuaint]ance in Wellington.