THE END IN THE FAR EAST

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 70, 15 December 1937, Page 4

THE END IN THE FAR EAST

"In a stTUggle between massed armies China sooner or later is bound to be stoashed. AlthoUgh Chiang Kai-shek has several divisiohs of troops that, man for man, are equal or superior to any the Japanese Can put in the field, he has not the • artillqry, t&nks or air foree to hold ,out indefinitely against Japan' s highly-fneohanised forees. His plans have shown up reaSonahly well compared with those of the Japanese, but they are outnumhered three or four to one. China does not begin to have the financial and industrial resources which Japan possesSes, but neither is its economy so sensitive to the catastrophic effect of war. From 85 to 90 per cent. o£ China's population is direotly dependent on agriculture; the actual industrial population is insignificant. Owing to thc almost complete ahsence of transport facilities each province, and to a large extent each village, is virtually selfstifficient. The destruction of Shanghai will have no effect on the living standardS of the p*asants in the interior provinces. Half the country could be laid waste without seriously influencing the economic structure of the other half."— Maxwell S. Stewart, "Nation," NeW York.