LIGHTER SIDE OF WAR

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 55, 27 November 1937, Page 14

LIGHTER SIDE OF WAR

Even wars have their lighter sides, says tbe London Observer; and Japanese newspaper comment . on tbe course of hostilities in Cbiua, wbile very serious in iiitexit, is not infrequently ainusing. The Japanese, in public statements aud Prgsa comment, follow the metbbdg of epic poets in invariably employing conventional adjectives and pbrases in characterising given sitiiations. For instance, tbe Japanese troops, wbatever tbey aiay bave been doing, are always "patient"; the Chinese are just as monotonously and regulariy "outrageous." Every Chinese act of hostility, regardless of the circutnstances, is "illegal"; every Japanese military move is presuped to conform to tbe highest standards of international legality. So, during the recent figliting around Nankow, north-west .of Ppkinc, the Japanese official repor.t

,was to tbe effeet that, wbile one Chin* ese unit turned and fled, tbe other "illegally" attacked tbe Japanese. Tbe Japanese bave also overworked tbe word "sincerity," until it bas be-* conie almost a byword. Any failure to j compiy witb Japanese demands is characterised as proof positive of "complete lack of sincerity." During fcbe tortuous negotiations wbieb ended in sever figbting around Peking and Tientsin a Governmental spokesman, receiving foreign correspondents, expatiatcd on tbe "sineere" Chinese who were in favour of accepting all of Japan's 'most fair and just demands," and the "insincere" ones who were interfering with the course of negotiations. A waggish correspondent excited a general laugh by inquiring: "What's the use of negotiating with those sineere fellows if there are so •many insincere ones to upset everything?"