FAR EASTERN AFFAIRS

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21043, 20 February 1940, Page 2

FAR EASTERN AFFAIRS

LECTURE THIS WEEK JOURNALIST FROM CHINA A lecture on Far Eastern affairs and their relation to New Zealand will be given in St. Peter’s Hall on Thursday night when Mr James Bertram, who recently returned from China, will speak on “ China, Japan and New Zealand.” A former New Zealand Rhodes Scholar, Mr Bertram studied at Oxford and was also enabled by the Rhodes Trust to study conditions in China. After concentrating on languages for a year he represented a number of English newspapers, and was the First English correspondent to reach the scene of action during the Sian episode in December, 1936, when the Chinese generalissimo, Chiang-Kai-Shek, was kidnapped. Mr Bertram’s first book, “ Crisis in China,” was an account of the author’s difficult journey into the interior of China during that period. Since the beginning of the hostilities with Japan, Mr Bertram has seen a great deal of the leaders on the fighting front. In this connection his most interesting experience was a stay of several months on the North China Front, which gave the title for his second book. At that time he had the advantage of living with the army, and this contact with its leaders has given him a knowledge of the Chinese Communists which is equalled by only one or two other western Europeans. Last November Mr Bertram left China for his first visit to New Zealand since he left to go to Oxford.