EASTERN STORM AREA

Hokitika Guardian, 18 November 1931, Page 3

EASTERN STORM AREA

RIVAL HANDS ON MANCHURIA

REVIEW OF THE DISPUTE,

Manchuria competes with Eastern Europe for the distinction of being the most explosive area in the post-war world (says the “Economist”). In Manchuria, too, the U/S.S.K. is on the scene, with her control of the Chinese Eastern Railway; while., just 011 the threshold of this Soviet Russian sphere, in the Far East, there lies the theatre of a national feud between the Chinese and the Japanese, which is just as tense and bitter as our own European feuds between Pole and Ukranian or Pole and German.

The public feeling in Japan about Mapchuria is deep. It is bound up with the personal feeling, among the older generation, for their contemporaries who gave their lives in the RussoJapanese war. The Russo-Japanese war has been the decisive war in modern Japanese history. The victory in it saved Japan from a great danger, was purchased at a cost of Japanese lives a.nd money, and raised Japan to the position of a great Power. This position largely depends on the status in South Manchuria which the Treaty of Portsmouth secured' to her; and this is,more than a question of sentiment or even prestige. The maintenance and expansion of Japanese industry depends upon Japan is command of South Manchurian coal find minerals.

STUBBORN JAPANESE ATTITUDE. For these various reasons the Japanese people are bent on retaining the assets, of all kinds, which they hold in South Manchuria, to-day. The prolongation of the leases of the South Manchuria Railway, and of the territory of Kwantung (containing Dairen and Port Arthur), was a prominent point in the notorious “Twenty-one-De-mands” which Japan presented to China in 1915 ; and while many of those demands were eventually scaled down or quietly allowed to it is significant that the group relating to South Manchuria was 'insisted upon. As for Chinese rights in Manchuria, the Japanese maintain that, but for the Japanese blood and treasure which was poured out in order to defeat the Russians in the Russo-Japanese war, all Manchuria would be Russian territory to-day. It is thanks to Japan, they argue, that the whole of 'Manchuria has remained Chinese territory. They do not contest Chinese sovereignty (not even the ultimate Chinese sovereignty over the leased territory, which is in suspense so long as the. lease continues). More than that, they have reconciled themselves to the prospect that Chinese, and not Japanese, farmers will populate! this vast empty arable country.

They reoognise Jhat the Japanese are bad colonists ; thaWthe climate is against them, and that, their higher standard of living would be enough in itself to prevent them from competing witli the Chinese for the land.

They realise that the function of the Japanese in Manchuria is to be .'administrators, business men and technicians, and that numerically they are bound to remain a drop in the ocean of Chinese peasant immigrants. But, having granted all this, the Japanese are utterly re■solved to maintain' their rights and ■assets .in Manchuria as . they now exist without diminution, for an indefinite time to come. , *

ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION. And what of the Chinese view? The Chinese look upon the Japanese power in Manchuria as an abomination of desolation, standing in the place where ityought not, and. they have no intention of coming to a compromise wit]) Japan or recognising her claims in Manchuria in any; way. ' At the. points where these two national spirits come into 'conflict, the tensity of the atmosphere can easily be imagined.

No one who has visited Mukden lately can be much surprised to hear that the storm has burst, and the League iCouncil, which discussed the situation on' an appeal by the Chinese Government, avas presented with a problem which is formidable ,;and delicate.