"Hands Off China"

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 31, 30 October 1937, Page 6

"Hands Off China"

H. R.

FRENCH.

Sir,— A Japanese jQurnaUst at present in the Dominion tells us that. . the Japanese have no quarrel with China's miliions. . , Amhassador Saito has been telling the people of the .United .St'ates the very same . story. *. 1 The Chinese have nothing to fear from Japan," are Mr Saito 's woids. . ; The Chinese know better. Any student will find it hard to understand why such statements are made. If," there were no official documents dealing with Japan's actions in regard to China throughout theiyear- if there wure no books written by, men of int egrity and of independent standing — and th'ere is no lack of bdth — we could. yet leam of the 'arrogance of the Japanese towards the- Chinese from New Zealanders who have lived and are living in China. In last night 'S issue you publish this cable: "Major Harrison, of the Welsh Fueiliers . . . paid ! a . tribute to tho Chinese discipline in the xetreat. It was so orderly, he said, that the Japanese for a long time were not aware of the evacuation. The J apanese, angered at the escape of the Chineso army, machine;gunhed men, .woman, and children captured in the area." I hnve harrowing descriptions of simi.lar slaughter of non-combatants - at tho previous Sbanghai incursion, told by American eye-witnesses. , , Japan's excueea for her persiStent punitive expeditions- into .Chinese. terri- .. tories have been. various. During the negotiations- for the British-Japanese Alliance, Japan solemnly assured Lord Lansdowne, the then British Foreign Secretary ^ that Japan stood, as Britain did, for preservation of Chinese territorial integrity and the open door for trade. Hqw. many . times has she pledged herself to the same policy sincc then? Her real policy, testified to by many acts, is to take all and give nothing back, unless compelled by Powers she has been afraid to oppose. Jn the.iast few years, it seetos, neither justice nor any combination of Powers will defl0Ct her from her prepared plan of aggression.

British and American anti-aircratt guns are to be used against Japanese air attacks upon their outposts. Those authorities are gctting tired of Japanese apologies for thn continued (slaughter of their nationals. Sir John Hope Simpson^ directorgeneral of the International l'looct Relief Conimission, records that before the bombardment of a refugee camp m Chapei- by the Japanese in February, 1932, a Japanese aviator flew close over the camp and waved his hand to the occupants. There .were 3000 children in the camp. A lted Cross flag was fiying at the gate, and a Blue Cross flag flew over the hospital. It could not have been mistaken for a military encampment. Despite Sir John's xemontitrance at. tlie bombardment, the camp was twice again subjeeted to heavy gunfire. The unexpected tenacity of tbe Chinese, eo ill-equipped with war maehinery, so lacking in the last for war, and generally so hesitant in accepting responsibility either as . individuals, or to centralised leadership, is a heart-moving sacrifice. Even they may teach Japan's war lords that violence is too costly an instrument to use. Japan has not learncd that lesson in her attacks on China. Sho lost only 926 in'her x-ape of Maiichuria. In the 1932 attack on Shanghai her losses were only 651. The Chinese slaughtered totalled 58,248, of which 12.936 were civilian men, women and children. "Hands off China," came the threat to the world from Japan. May she be compelled to swallow her own me'dicine. — Yours, etc.,

Hastings, Oct. 30, 1937,