MANCHURIA TODAY

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 74, 29 March 1933, Page 7

MANCHURIA TODAY

NOTICEABLE PROGRESS

JAPAN WELL ESTABLISHED

OPPRESSION DENIED

After even a short trip through Manchuria has served to reveal strikingly the real progress which Japan has made towards stabilising the country, any sojourner hi Mukden* must agree, at least to some extent, with the arguments Qf Japan's delegates at Geneva to the effect that China will almost cer- • tainly continue in a condition of turmoil and disunity for the next ton or twenty years, states a correspondent in the "New York Times." Anyone^ who has visited Manchuria for from four to six different times every year during the last seven years, cannot fail to admit that Manchuria today, as it was six years ago and four years ago and two years ago, still is the most progressive and best administered portion, of what maps and atlases label "China." ; Conditions in Manchuria today' with all of the drawbacks and serious problems, are better than conditions pre- • Tailing in the Yangtse Valley or in North or South China. "While it is probable that many of the Japanese leaders now regret that Japan did not put its grievances against China before the League of Nations, instead, of waging an undeclared war in an effort to redress those grievances by force, there seems to be little doubt that under the conditions which, have arisen Japan ,cannot and will not change its Manchurian policy. DIFFERENCE IN POLICY. Because of the policy of military aggression and' the untenable contention that the State of Manchukuo ha^ . come into being as a result of the spontaneous will'of the population of Manchuria, Japan has diverted the attention of the world from the fact that the policy of the Nanking"Government from the time it was founded until September, 1931, was one of repudiation of obligations, of militant anti-foreignism, . and of purposeful encroachment upon the rights of all foreign nations in China. • The history of China's foreign relations from the beginning of 1D26 until September, 1931, entirely counterbalance's Nanking's strident claims to an unctuous and superior rectitude, but Japan's more recent policy of violence and pretence has dimmed the world's memory of China's earlier transgressions. ■' . Today, as a trip to Manchuria will show, Japan is stoutly established here, and here Japan intends to stay. The very fact that its Manchurian adven- / ture has cost far more in men, money, credit, and in loss of the world's good t opinion than was expected, has apparently only strengthened the determination, to hold what has been won. China's representations at Geneva to the effect that Japan is maintaining its position in Manchuria by a- campaign of studied frightfulness, and that- the .'30,000,000 or so Chinese in Manchuria are living under intolerable oppression, are in no way supported by the conditions found there. Nor is it true, as the Chinese delegates to the League of Nations contend, that the Chinese people ip. Manchuria are inflamed with patriotism and a love for their native land and with hatred for their ''ruthless conquerors." Most of the Chinese in Manchuria are plodding, ignorant peasants, fWho merely want to be let alone and to enjoy adequate protection for their lives and .for the. small properties which they accumulate by unremitting toil. Of patriotism,, of nationalism, and of aspirations for self-determination or self-government they know and care practically nothing. CHINESE BETTER-OFF. If the material welfare, the health, education, and the decent taxation of the people of Manchuria are prime concerns in the settling of the Manchurian problem, then it must be admitted that even today the people of these former Chinese provinces are as well off as they were under Marshal Chang HsiaoHang. Judging by the progress now being made and the plans for administrative betterment which are actually under way, they will be much better off than they ever have been. After all, the Lytton Commission, in its recommendations,, was distinctly hostile to any proposition for a return to the status quo ante. The Japanese in Manchuria and "the Chinese heading the Manchukuo Gov-. ernment are today insistent "upon a "realistic" consideration of the situation. Aftex all, they say, Manchuria must have a Government, and what's to be done about it? I'here seem to be only three choices. First, there is the existing Maitchukuo , Government, which was undoubtedly organised by Japanese and,which would undoubtedly collapse if the Japanese army were^ to be withdrawn. This Govr,. ernment the United States will not recognise. .. • Secondly, there is tho restoration of a purely Chinese regime, but this can be accomplished only by military force -exerted by sbnie Power'or Powers other than China, or by a world-wide application of economic sanctions against Japan. . __ The third possibility is a Government with international backing, but this proposal^ too, Japan emphatically re- . jects. There is a fourth remote possibility * —that if Japan is subjected to intolerable pressure it might be forced to annek: Manchuria and stake- its national existence upon maintaining its position there. This would entail the risk of war and of reducing Japan to the impotence of a third-class Power, but ■ even the nations which most- loudly condemn the Japanese policy of the last fifteen months would not dare to hazard such a profound disturbance of the balance of power in the Far East. * Many careful foreign observers, offi-' cials" and others, who have been living in China or Japan since the early years of this century, profess to see a striking and sinister resemblance between what is going on in Manchuria and what went on in Korea during tho three or. four rears immediately preceding the annexation of Korea by the Japanese Empire. JAPANESE IN CONTROL. ■ It is tvue that now there aro literally thousands of Japanese advisers in Manchuria who actually control or direct all of tho organs of the Manchukuo Government. Japanese advisers also direct nearly all enterprises, from the railways, banks, and telegraphs, down to small private factories. These advisers, incidentally, must approve all purchases, and non-co-operation by "Manchuquoans" brings disciplinary punishment. It is declared that most of these Japanese advisers have become naturalised citizens of Manehukuo, but it is "important to remember that under Japanese law no Japanese ceases to be a subject of the empire even though he takes out citizenship papers abroad. It is also important to consider the fact that most of these Japanese advisers were arbitrarily appointed to their posts riy the Japanese military. Precisely similar tactics were followed in Korea between 1905 and 1911. ■ Among the Chinese, except in official Government circles, there appears to be no enthusiasm for the State of Manchukuo. It is true that the archives . of the Government at Changchun already contain great sheaves of resolutions of approbation and support passed

by various guilds, chambers of commerce, and other organisations of Manchurian Chinese. It is not unfair to state that organisations representing business and property must necessarily support the powers that be if they are to continue to exist and prosper. The archives at Seoul in the. early years of the present century were crammed with similar resolutions and so-called, evidences of enthusiastic support. Korea is part of the Japanese Empire today, and tho people of Korea have been enormously benefited materially by the annexation. But even after more than twenty years of material benefits, the Koreans are still sullen, unreconciled, and unappreciative. One wonders about the Manchukuo of 1952.