"Japan to Blame"

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 183, 20 August 1937, Page 8

"Japan to Blame"

Our Own Correspondent.)

FAR.EAST CONFLICT "Long-Suffering Chinese Provoked to Action" DETERMINED TO RESIST

(From

CHRISTCHURCH, Dast Night. "Let me say in unmistakable terms that Japan alone is to blame for tho deplorable state of affairs in the Par East at the present time," said tho Rev. Dr. Arthur Taylor, seeretary for Scotland of the China lnland Mission, in an ad-dress last night. What the outcome of tho present confiict would be Dr. Taylor said he could not say, but the fact remained that Japan today faeed a much more united China than was tho case when she eought to impo'se her demands in 1933. These were „terrible demands, continued Dr. Taylor, which no self-re-specting country could possibly suffer, and Japan delivered them in the knowledge that Europe itself was in too much of a turmoil to interfere actively. The demands roused Chiua iu an unprccedented manner, but i'n plaee of war China xesorted to a boycott of Japanese goods. This affected Japan more than she was prepared to admit. Moreover, she had never got over that boycott, nor had China forgotten the injustice of the Japanese demands. ,■ "Let Us Be Patient." . No country in the world had been so patient, so forbearing and so longeufl'enng, said Dr. Taylor in referring to China 's disinclination to go to war witlr Japan. When after tho boycott was imposed he had travellcd extensively in China, he saw a never-ending stream of caravan loads of Japanese goods being Gimiggied into- China. Tho Chinese authorities knew what was going on but did not interfere, well knowing that to have dono so would havo provoked Japan to going to war — the very thing the Japanese wanted. The more hot-headed Chinese patriofcs wanted to defy the Japanese; but timo and again the great Ohristian Chinese generalissimo, Chiang Kai-shekt restrained them. To the cry, "Let us deelare war on these invaders, ' ' his answer was "Nd, let us be patient." He even had to give up his office fo'r a time — he also suffered imprisonment — beeause the student body iu China was so incensed at his rcfusal to deelare war on Japan. "I cannot give you any indication of the outcomo of the confiict that is raging fo-day," said Dr. Taylor; "but everywhere I went on my recent visit to China, I was amazed to see tho preparations for war being made by the Chinese." On all sides, even in the far interior, he saw feverish activities which betokened that China was at last resigned to the inevitable. The whole country was arming and drilling for war, so much so that ho thought himself back in England in the early days of 1914. When he epoke to his Chinese friends about tne matter, they invariably Teplied: "We know it Is only a matter of a few weeks — a~few months at" the mo'St — when Japan will compel us to wage war, and this time we are determined to resist. ' ' China' s Destiny. Xn cmphasising that China had made very rapid advances in recont years iu material things, Dr. Taylor said Japan knew that to-day she had a far more formidable ta6k on her hands than when she annexed Manchuria. But Japan had reason'ed that if she did not go to war with China to-day, when Europe was too occupied with her own troubles to oxert a restraining influonce on her territoriai ambitions, it would be too late, beeause before very long the modernisation of China would have been carried too far to suit her designs. Few people realised, said Dr. Taylor, the vastness of fthe Japanese fighting machine. Japan was armed 'absolutely to tho teeth. People had 'said: "Why did not Great Britain stop Japan from taking Manchuria, for example?" Tho answer was, explafued Dr. Taylor, that if Great Britain had attempted 4o oppose Japan at that time by force of arma, tho Japanese floet would have slipped in and captured Singapore. Manchuria was one of the viehest countries in the world, and onco she had developed it Japan would be repaid by 500 or 600 pe'r ceut. the money she had spent on it. Looking ahead, Dr. Taylor said that some day China would dominate the whole world, and if ever she developed along the same lines as Japan she would become a terrible menace. Such a contingency would never arise if, against the lime of her world dominance, she becamo Christianised. By tho same token. if Japan had been Christianised in the wide sense of the word the present trouble with Japan would never have arisen.