TROUBLED EAST

Hokitika Guardian, 16 January 1932, Page 3

TROUBLED EAST

CHINA AND JAPAN

IMPRESSIONS OF A NEW ZEALANDER.

WELLINGTON, January 12,

The impressions of China and Japan which Mr J. E. Strachan, principal of the Rangiora High School, gave a '‘Times'’’ correspondent on his return to-day, showed that lie had taken full advantage of the exceptional opportunities afforded by seeing one of the New Zealand delegates at the Pacific Relations Conference. “To one accustomed to the comparatively spacious and unhurried life of iNew Zealand,” said Mr Strachan, “the . asi, with its jostling crowds, its clamour, its ceaseless rush of work, and its terrible struggle for the bare necessities of life, is at first just a confusion of senses. We divide our day into three parts—work, recreation, sleep. The East has only tiro divisions, work and sleep, and the first is the bigger part. There is pleasure seeking, but no real recreation. It takes the torm either of a stimulation or a drugging of the senses. That seems to be tilt only relief from the ceaseless grind. Contact with Western civilisation has not brought relief or help, out rather added to the confusion. Nevertheless, it is possible to find peace and in China if you know where to look for it, even in its cities, and China still has it s strong men, its men of vision and clear purpose, who can load China aright if they are given the help we ought to give them. China just now i,s still in the transition stage, : politically, economically and culturally. “From a practical point of view 1 can think of nothing more important for the world as a whole than a raising of the standard of life in China. The Chinese are splendid people. .It would V hard to find a bette.r-'vkanywhere. But in their present condition of dire poverty and political confusion they are a menace "Tn the .world," If China can be helped, itself, it can make, 1 think, a tremendous contribution to the world’s welfare. We are making a mistake in attempting to exploit China rather than to co-operate with her.

WESTERNSATION OF JAPAN. “Japan,” continued Mr Strachan, “is a beautiful country. Topographically it is very like New Zealand, but it is what w© may expect New Zealand to ■look like when we have a bigger population, when more intensive'..cultivation and afforestation have done their work. But Japan is terribly overcrowded, and as 'the Japanese are not a migratory people, even if they had anywhere to migrate to, they arc attempting to find economic relief in industrialisation after the Western model. In this thty have shown remarkably adaptiveness—eclecticism one of my Japanese friends called it—and superficially there is a great appearance of efficiency. They are good copyists, but they are new at '.he game, and overdoing it?. I Isaw a Customs official stamp each individual cigarette in a traveller’s cigarettecase. Tfiat' is typical of % them.; in deadly earnest about everything, with no saving sense of humour. Japan is modelling herself on the American business system, the British navy systun and the Prussian army system. The trmy to-day is top dog. Japan has always been devil-ridden by the Samurai ; to-day the Samurai is a Boche, from ids close-cropped, bristled hair to his jingling spurs. He dictates the oolicy oi the Government, the curriculum of the schools and the Press news. Just as present he is busy working up a martial spirit in Japan, directed, of course, against China; and it the world sympathises with China, it will bt directed against the world. That saving sense of humour iis what Japan needs as much a s anything to-day. I do not think the world has anything to fear from the modernisation of Japan or of China, but there is grave danger of their adopting idea s from Western civilisation that are already obsolescent and discredited. Militarism is the, worst of these. MANCHURIA’S DEVELOPMENT.

“The economic development of Manchuria is one of the marvels of tinmodern world, Manchuria i.s rap.vily filling up, mainly with Chinese agriculturists driven out of certain parts ol China by famine, banditry and other conditions created mainly by the military war lords. Russians also are coming iiu great numbers. Railway development and mining are mainly in the hands of the Japanese, but there is a great deal of Chinese railway development also, and this is one of Japan’s grievances. Manchuria has been badly governed since the death of Chang Tso Lin. The Japanese have had t u put up with a great deal, and have got little satisfaction from appeals to the Chinese authorities. The fundamental antipathies of the Chinese and Japanese will .always kad to trouble so long as armed forces of both nations, police or military, are in contact. Nevertheless, there is no war in Manchuria, for there i s no organised Chinese Army. 1 don t think anything would please the Japanese fire-eaters more than the appealaiice in Manchuria. of a Chinese national army. The Chinese, howevw, are adopting more subtle means of defeating Japanese aggressiveness—boycotts and propagaiuia. Meantime the Japanese are lighting a theatrical war, with much waving of swords, blowing of trumpets and ’Batizais,’ but no real mid tangible enemy is ill sight.