WHAT TO DO

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 248, 19 October 1937, Page 4

WHAT TO DO

Boycott or Trade AUSTRALIA’S PROBLEM ANTIPATHY TOWARDS JAPAN. SYDNEY, Oct. 8. Australia is a long way from Shanghai and Nanking, but if the cities on which the Japanese have been raining bombs were "just across the harbour” the feelings of our people could hardly have been mordeply stirred than by the news that has reached us lately from the FatEast.

There are, of course, men and women who maintain that “we cannot believe all we see in the papers,” and the Consul-General for Japan has been doing his best to explain to Sydney folk that these reports are manifestly exagerated and incredible, that the Japanese are a chivalrous and delightful people, and that they are actuated only by affection ana goodwill towards the Chinese.

But the accumulated testimony which authenticates these horror* has produced a deep and far-reach-ing effect here, and it has stirred up many people to ask eagerly if Australia can do nothing to testify to its abhorrence of such atrocities and to check outbreaks of barbarism which may quite conceivably claim this country as a victim at some future date.

Held His Peace. Mr. Lyons has said quite correctly that Australia can do nothing independently of Britain and the League of Nations, and Mr. Curtin, in spite of Labour’s strong advocacy of tne boycott, has discreetly held his peace. The commercial and financial interests represented here by a certain section of the Press remind us constantly that if we antagonise the Japanese they will not buy our wool, and the Labour Daily, which demands that no Australian shall ever be called upon to fight in a foreign quarel, reiterates constantly that "sanctions mean war.” It has been reserved for the trade] unions and the Labour Council to ■ take the only decisive measures that have so far been attempted here to. demonstrate our sympathy for China and our hatred of Japan’s methods of warfare. Watersiders’ Threat. In the first place, the wharf labourers on the waterfront threatened to declare all Japanese vessels "black,” but delayed action till the Labour Council had reached a decision. The Labour Council called a special meeting to consider the position, and resolved unanimously to appeal to the workers of Australia to organise a complete boycott of Japanese goods, to prevent all export of goods to Japan, and to refuse to handle all goods to or from Japan. Encouraged by this vigorous action, sympathisers organised several public demonstrations, which at one time threatened to assume a dangerous form. A procesion of several hundreds—bearing banners which displayed slogans of an inflammatory kind, "Hands off China,” "Down with Fascism,” "Don’t buy from Japanese Murderers” —marched down Oxford Street into the city and reached George Street before it was broken up by energetic police charges. Bold Attempt. Another procession made a bold attempt to threaten the Japanese Consulate, and at the same time large bodies of workers at Newcastle resolved neither to handle Japanese goods nor to equip or repair Japanese vesels. Meantime the Labour Council had elaborated its plans to carry oat its boycott resolution and its decisions as published in the Sydney Morning Herald, were courageous and comprehensive enough. It proposes to distribute 50,000 leaflets giving a list of banned Japanese goods which the workers will be warned not to purchase; to induce business men to display in their windows the notice, "No Japanese Goods Sold Here,” to appeal to the Federal Government to forbid the export of scrap iron to Japan, and to withdraw the concession for working the Yampl Sound iron deposits now worked by the Japanese, to request the workers of Australia neither to handle Japanese cargo nor to repair or fit out Japanese ships, to appeal foi support to the churches, the Chinese community and the League ol Nations Union, and to hold a series

of meetings In all populous centres to form "Hands off China” committees. The ultimate object of all these activities is stated to be the withdrawal of Japanese forces from China. No doubt Japan is to a large extent "bluffing” in China, as Italy was originally in Abyssinia, and a strong stand made by two or three great Powers on strictly economic and commercial lines would probably reduce her to reason. Dr. Pao, who is Consul-General for China here, has just published in ournewspapers a resume of the damage done already in China, almost entirely at the expense of the unarmed civilian population; and a terrible record it is. In Tientsin, in Nanking and in Shanghai, in Canton and other great centres a dozen universities, well endowed and well equipped seats or academic and scientific learning, have been utterly destroyed. Many noncombatants of high standing, including professors, scientists and journalists of repute, have been killed 40 hospitals have been shelled ana destroyed, over 500 Red Cross nurses have been killed. At least 40,000 civilians, including women and children, have perished, thousands of junks and fishing boats have been shelled and torpedoed with their hapless crews, and more than £10,000,000 worth of wheat and cotton has been burned by bombs and shellfire "in places of no military importance.” This is the fate prepared by invading armies in modern times for ths helpless inhabitants of a country which—like the Japanese in China —they say profess to regard with friendship and good-will, and the Australians can hardly be blamed for desiring to express their views about such "methods of policy” lest their own turn may come too soon.