FAR EASTERN CRISIS

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20248, 17 July 1937, Page 6

FAR EASTERN CRISIS

An acute crisis has arisen in the Far East. For many years the Japanese, regarding China as a land torn with internal strife, has sought excuses to despoil her of provinces and to disregard her demands that her sovereignty be respected. Manchuria (now Manchukuo) has, through Japanese machinations, become a separate State, with a puppet Emperor; and Jehol, an adjoining Chinese province, has been roped in; while an autonomous government has been set up in the East Hopei Province undjjr a Chinese ruler who was educated in Japan and married a Japanese wife. And so, by “peaceful penetration,” Japan has been steadily moving southward, and has declared that she will regard it a casus belli if the Nanking Government forces approach Peking. This is significant, for Peking is one of the five North China Provinces in which Japan has been seeking to establish “political independence.” As it adjoins Manchukup, which is now under the tutelage of Japan, the suggestion of “independence” may well be doubted. According to Lord Strabolgi, who held high commands during the Great War, Japan’s daring and ambitious plan at that period was, first, to seize the whole of Manchuria; second, to annex Shanghai (where Great Britain’s interests are estimated at nearly £150,000,000), Nanking (the seat to-day of the National Government of China), and the Yangtze Valley; and: third, to occupy Canton and its littoral, including British Kowloon. Whilst Japan has been actively prosecuting her plans to dissever her huge neighbour, the Chinese have not been idle. Realising the truth of the adage “ United we stand, divided we fall,” cohesive influences have been set in motion, and what in the expressive language of Mr Seiji Yoshida, a Tokio banker resident in Shanghai, was “once a try of sand is now hardening into cement,” and he advised those in authority in his own country to recognise that in future they would have to deal with a changed people; that the old spirit of servility and passiveness had passed away and had given place to a determination to face the despoiler. Dr. Koo, who recently visited the Dominion, expressed similar sentiments to those of Mr Yoshida, and predicted that should Japan force the issue to a decision by arms, she would probably find herself confronted with a stiff proposition. The attitude taken up by the Chinese authorities certainly bears out the contention that they are convinced that the time has come to take up a firm stand against a relentless aggressor. It is greatly to be hoped that a satisfactory solution of the difficulty will be reached, for a conflict in the Far East could not fail to have repercussions throughout the world.