Wairarapa Daily Times (Established Over 60 Years.) THURSDAY, 30th SEPTEMBER, 1937. A COMPLEX GAME.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 30 September 1937, Page 6

Wairarapa Daily Times (Established Over 60 Years.) THURSDAY, 30th SEPTEMBER, 1937. A COMPLEX GAME.

In the complex game played in North China during the last few years no less than five players have been holding hands. The quintet q£ forces in North China has been composed of the Central Government of China, Japan, the local war lords, Russia, and the Chinese Communists. Politically, and strategically, the five northern provinces are vital to China. Furthermore, Nanking has not been blind to the economic importance of the north-west, visualised, according to Hessell Tiltman, “as a new Promised Land which will banish both land hunger and poverty from the Chinese scene.” Progress has been made with irrigation works in this region. Japan, however, has definitely set out to extend her hegemony over North China, and has indicated that she will not tolerate antiJapanese influences beside her Manchukuo border. She has been making large investments there, and has shown interest in the coal, iron, cotton, wheat and rice wealth of the five provinces. North China would provide her with markets as well as raw materials, and these would be especially valuable since Manchukuo has proved disappointing as a solution of Japan’s economic problems. The method employed by Japan to extend control in North China has been that of creating “autonomous” or semi-autonomous units, but the visions of General Doihara, the Japanese “Lawrence of Asia,” have only partly crystallised. The eastern Hopei Autonomous Council has been pliant enough under Yin Ju-keng, but General Sung Cheh-yuan, chairman of the Hopei-Chahar Political Council, has used the cards of autonomy to gather in a few tricks for himself. He tvas Avilling to collaborate with Tokio and make profits on the smuggling which, owing largely to Chinese hands being tied by the Tangku truce, went on merrily until last year. But influence from Nanking Avas at last successful, and this change in the complexion of things may not be unconnected with the Japanese policy of extending the “pax japonica” by more positiye means than dependence on shuffling war lords.