Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, AUG. 21, 1937. BITTER, WARFARE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 224, 21 August 1937, Page 8

Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, AUG. 21, 1937. BITTER, WARFARE.

Without a formal declaration of war Japan and China are fighting desperately at Shanghai. In spite of the goodwill'expressed by both Nanking and Toluo the foroes of each country have let loose a rain of death and destruction that is appalling. On land, sea, and in the air the warfare continues and innocent victims are numbered among the slain. The grim scenes that made Shanghai so prominent in the news in 1932 are again being enacted, but this time China is not the almost defenceless Power she was five years ago. Though the Japanese may ram shells from their warships upon a hapless Chinese suburb and kill and maim hundreds of people apart from the military, the Chinese land forces are maintaining a bitter resistance indicative of their professed intention to preserve as fas as possible their, sovereignty. How long the struggle will last is a matter of serious concern, particularly to other Powers with big interests at Shanghai. Japan has not only increased her taxes but raised money and credits to meet the war costs. She has also declared a state of emergency. China has arranged for munitions to be supplied through Czechoslovakia to repair her deficiencies in this respect. The numerically strong forces in all three* branches of the service now concentrated in Shanghai by Japan, and the order withdrawing her nationals from China, imply ominous preparations for a protracted struggle in which the resources of both sides will be severely tested, unless there is a complete change of opinion and a peaceful settlement. How to secure this peaceful settlement is exercising the Powers. Britain has made overtures to both countries, after consultations with other nations, to isolate the International Settlement by determining a zone including and suiTounding Shanghai from which Chinese and Japanese forces will be excluded. Confidence would be given to Japan for the safety of her nationals and to China against the use of the International Settlement as a military base, while the protection of Japanese in Shanghai would be entrusted to the foreign contingents in Shanghai. The proposals have not appealed to either combatant. China palpably is afraid that Japan would not hesitate to commit a breach of any such arrangement if it suited her to do so, and Japan insists that the protection of her nationals is her own particular task. Such an agreement, were it possible, would pave the wag to further negotiations, but with both sides showing no disposition towards an amicable arrangement, the trouble remains as grave as ever.

It is, however, not a matter only lor both protagonists for Britain, France and the United have important interests in Shanghai and the International Settlement. Some of their nationals have been killed, property has been destroyed, and at considerable cost large numbers have been evacuated. An analogy has been drawn by Japan between the present situation and that of Britain’s action in 1927, but it has been clearly shown that none exists. Then China was in the throes of a civil war and British interests were endangered from Communistic hordes. A large British force was despatched to prevent a rabble and panicstricken soldiery from over-run-ning the Settlement. It had a salutary effect and saved lives and property, but those troops were never once used for aggression or for political purposes. Japan, on the other hand, has large forces in Shanghai ready to spring at China. -If they were not there and Japan trusted to the help of other Powers Chinese ill-rwiU could easily be curbed. In 1927, when not in office, and writing before the first British transport left for Shanghai, Mr Ramsay .MacDonald said: “Nothing could justify our authorities if they simply walked away from settlements which past Chinese Governments have allowed us to control, and where our people have taken up their abode under the security which they believed the treaties gave them.” A little later the late Mr Arthur Henderson declared that the “British Empire is a fact —it exists, and must be reckoned with. Such momentous opinion should surely satisfy both China and Japan that warfare in and around Shanghai is not a matter for themselves alone. Other Powers have vital interests which demand consideration. Unfortunately the spirit of aggression in Japan is the greatest menace to Ear Eastern peace.