DEATH FROM THE CLOUDS.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 2, 25 September 1937, Page 4

DEATH FROM THE CLOUDS.

The widespread horrors attending the indiscriminate aerial bombing in which the Japanese military forces in China have been indulging has served to thoroughly arouse that very lethargic faculty we Hear of as "the conscience of the world.' * This is no doubt due to ihe vast number of defenceless lives that have been sacrificed and to the fact that the lives of a very large number of the citizens of other eeuntries have been- imperilled. When something of the same kind, but on a very much smaller scale, was taking place in Abyssinia and very few outside the native population were involved, the world looked on with comparative indifTerence, contenting itself with occasional mild protests. The attitude has, too, been very much the same irt relation to like happenings in Spain, right in the midst of western civilisation. Now, however, the full implications of this rain of death when showered down upon dense populations are being brought home to those who are beginning to realise the possibility of its being turned upon themseives should the warclouds be blown in their direction. It is quite useless for us to delude ourselves by trying to think that the atrocities reported from China may be attributable to the survival of savage instincts in a people that has only of comparatively recent years been admitted to the category of civilisation. «We have only to look round Europe to see all the Great Powers there uiaking preparations either for inflicting like horrors upon their neighbours or else, at any rate, making feverish preparations to safeguard against them. This all seems a very siiange commentary upon the boaSted civilisation of the twentieth century of the Christian Era about whose preservation so much wordy solicitude is being expressed. Now that the eyes of the world have been opened wide lo the possibilities inherent in these vile abuses of the al most miraculous powers which science and invention have during that century conferred on humanity, we can only but wonder what steps civilisation may take to preserve itself against them. As matters stand at present, if war from the air is to be permitted at all, there will always be a pretext, alniost valid excuse, for attacking centres of population to be found in the fact that in so many of them are instituted industries either openly engaged in the production of instruments and munitions of war or readily adaptable to that purpose. Japan has so far done little in the way of seeking justihcation in this or in any other like excuse. Her actions are almost nakedly and unashamedly designed to terrorise the , people of China and frighten them into subjection, or, as one of her own spokesmen puts it, "bring them to their knees." There can be little doubt, too, that the Japanese have been greatly astonished and not a little incensed to intensified violence by the unexpectedly stiff resistance which the Chinese have put up against their more legitimate methods of warfare. It is probably this disappointmerit of a hoped-for military walk-over more than anything else that has driven them to the barbarous recourses to which they have now resorted in thp hope of bringing to an end a costly war which they cannot maintain indefinitely on its present scale, particularly with the concurrent need for being prepared to deal with Russia as an active enemy. Beyond this there are increasing signs that persistent Japanese aggression, with further conquests in view, has gone a long way towards unifying and consolidating China' s powers of resistance and, if it came to a lengthy and determined war of human attrition, Japan could stand but a poor chance against China' s hunareds of millions of people. Then, even if victory should ultimately crown her arms, she will have to deal with a sullenly hostile population that will always Be seeking means of taking revenge in the many ways other than by open warfare that will be available to them. For the moment, however, greatest interest attaches to the outcome of the deliberations of other Great Powers ttnd of their efforts to bring this ghastlv tragedy to an end.