China, Japan and the League

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 78, 24 December 1937, Page 3

China, Japan and the League

H. E.

FEENCH.

• Sir, — The New York Times warns Japan that the United States will not provide her with funds to exploit any territoyr she may tear from China. it" is a pity there ia no practical way to« ensure that capital will not flow to Japan to aid her iong-planned st-hemes for the economic dommance of China. There has been aniong Japauese, divergence rega-rding methods of obtaining that donunance, but whother it is t>y the supposed short cut through using niilitary force, or the longer me oi seekiug to win the acquiesence of thc Chinese by bribery or other meaus; there is unity of view, ciear cut and defiuite, that Japan and no other cou.vtry, must control the resources and industrialisatiou of China. All the Japanese talk about bandHs and Communists compelling her to iutervene in Chinese affairs is "eyowash." It is necessary to be dogmatia to present in a short letter a foeus oL' the present situation. Borodin went from Kussia to show China how to create a Bolshevik state. He failed, he admitted he could not succeed, and gave the reasons why. There are communists, there are Red armies, but instead of the highly centralised control of a Communistic state, Chiuese locai autonomy has enabled her millions io proceed with their daily tasks with comparatively sma-11 upset until the« Japanese started firing their guns. The chairman of the Eockefeller^ Foundation is one witness who record.^ that despite all the reports from China^ the many elforts of the Foundation toi aid the Chinese were going on as usuaL practically without interforence. Roads were being formed, industries were in-, creasing, leaders in agriculture, medi-. cine, and in modern complexities of. governmeut, were being trained, before the Japanese started the present eonflict. ' It i§ to the eredit of the Unitec> ' States and of the League of Nation- } that such help to enahle China to help- | herself wa& given. The United State>3, used her portion of the Boxer rebelJioni indemnity payments to train youngChinese in improved methods of ftgri-' culture. Japan feared the effect of the; influence of these young American-' trained Chinese in transforming the industry of Manchuria more than she did any bandits. An altogether littlO known struggle proceeded in China .between the efforts of the League of Nations to help thq Chinese, and the Japanese organised opposition to such aid. Sir Arthur Salt: er, Jean Monnet, Sir Leith Eoss, Ko-, bert Haas, and Dr. Eajchman are soitie' who could relate their experiences. The; League sent many experts to China. In July 1933, the League 's China Cotnmittee under tho leadership of L.T-. . Eajchman began an intense battle to get on with their job, against tho overwhelming pressure of the Japanese on the Nanking Government to st.op them. Because T. Y. Soong, then the able Finance Minister of the Nanking Government, told the World Economic Conference in that year something ot what China and the League 's advisors had to endure from the Japanese, and because he secured a promise of financial help from America to aid the work of reconstruction; on his return hOme he was publicly warned by Akira Ariyoshi, the then Japanese Minister to' China. Mr Soong had to resign his Dortfolio.

I will close this epistle with the mention of three happenings. Japan plans to have China produce wool and supply her roills. The Chinese have countef plans that such developments shall bc undcr their own control. Lately the Nanking Government signed a five-year concession to a semi-Government company to develop rayon production in China. Such things are the real . cause of Japan 's aggression. A closing word respecting the . work of the League of Nations in the Ori- I ent. It will probably be news to many, j who through want of information, re- , peat the biassed deprecation of thn League and all its activities, to know that the League has held two conferences this year Telative to eastern problems and at both conferences Japan was ofiicially represented. The first held in February in Jav*. on the traffic in women and children carried a resolution asking the League to establish an eastern bureau for obtaining information from the respective governments and for circularising the sam-e, and to inaugurate action to save many thousands of Eussian wometsome gentle folk, who are totally without resources or training in handiwork, who are forced into the dire slavery ot' oriental prostitution. The other conference dealt with rural hygiene. The League of Nations had a health station at Singapore equipped to rusli help to any quarter of the Far East threatened with a serious outbreak ot' an epidemic. I will tcll later some tliings Japan did in Manchuria and Cuina. — Yours. etc..

Hastings De'c. 22, 1937. ANSWEE TO COEEESPONDENT "Argyle Von Westphalen Marx ' ' — Your inquiry is not sufficiently explicit to enable the education authorities to provide an answer. — Editor.