IN THE FAR EAST

Evening Star, Issue 22454, 26 September 1936, Page 8

IN THE FAR EAST

CONFLICT ADVANCES JAPAN'S INTENTIONS The “ whole Far East is like a boiling pot ” which is bubbling away, and may at any moment boil over and cause a conflagration. Dr Roy Chapman Andrews, explorer and director of the American Museum of Natural History, said in an interview on his return to the United States recently. Dr Andrews, who returned with his wife from a trip of three and a-half months to the Orient, most of it spent in Peking, declared that Japan was certain to control the Far East, and that everyone in the Orient considered a Russo-Japanese war inevitable, though the date was unpredictable (reports the ‘ New York Times ’)• He said the Japanese, who were pouring troops into North China by thousands, virtually controlled Peking, Tientsin, and most of North China. He gave credit to them, however, and to Chiang Kia-shek’s Nanking Government, for the extension of stabilising and calming influences to North China, and .said that a good part of the area was as peaceful as Westchester. However, he added, incidents of Japanese aggression and high-handed-ness towards foreign citizens in North China were of almost daily occar-

rence, although only a few such instances had reached the American Press. EXPLORATION BARRED. Dr Andrews, who left New York on March 29, was interviewed in his apartment at East Seventy-third street. Ho explained that he had gone _to the Orient for a vacation, to give Mrs Andrews the experience of keeping house in China ; and to “ get a firsthand view of the political situation in China m order to determine whether it ■ was possible to continue the Cental Asiatic expeditions in Mongolia.” On numerous expeditions into the Gobi and other parts of Mongolia, Dr Andrews has determined from a general and palaeontological survey that Mongolia, though not the largest, is “ one of the richest fossil fields ” in the world. He determined the location of some of the richest fields, and was prepared to start work when, during his hast expedition _in 1932, he was prevented from making any further studies^ His recent trip, the explorer said, convinced him that the political situation in China and the Far East made any exploration “ absolutely impossible.” Because of brigandage, the unsettled state of the country and the Japanese push westward along' the northern frontier of China, it probably would be impracticable for soma time to continue his work in Central Asia, he decided. He added, however, that when the Japanese had enough troops in Inner Mongolia and had suppressed_ brigandage, this would “ very materially help the prospect for scientific research. A CHANGE NOTICED. Dr Andrews said he had noticed ai great change in Peking; and that the Nanking Government had provided money for an “ enocmons amount of work ” in repairing the Temple of Heaven and other ancient landmarks. Though it was not so intended, ho added, the Chinese Government really was preparing P.eking for the Japanese, anfl we nave “ seen Peking with, its old charm for the last time.” The eixplorer did not consider Communism a menace to China. If let alone the Chinese might work out their own problems, he said, bint Japan was about ready to make of all North China as. far south as the Yellow River another Manchukuo, and nothing would prevent the Japanese from dominating the Far East,