Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 1939. CHINA’S GRIM RESISTANCE.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 June 1939, Page 6

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 1939. CHINA’S GRIM RESISTANCE.

PARTICULARLY impressive evidence of the fact that China 1 is far from being defeated appears to have been afforded in the big battle on the Northern Hupeh front, north of the Yangtse, of which leading details have been reported within the last day or two. In an extended advance through the country to the north-west of Hankow, the Japanese are reported to ffipe been swept back in rout. According to a report from Chungking yesterday, the Japanese suffered 25,000, casualties and have been forced to retreat 200 miles. If from the Japanese standpoint there is any more favourable complexion to be placed upon these events, Tokio seems to be rather slow in making itself heard on the subject. It is suggested in a message from Hong Kong that Japanese propagandists, for want of better things, are endeavouring to .distract attention from the course of events in China by compiling reports of air battles in Outer Mongolia, by giving exaggerated accounts of Chinese casualties, and by cutting down their own figures of loss, throughout the period of the undeclared warwhich started nearly two years ago. It is not denied that the Chinese have suffered enormous losses in and to these must be added probably an even o’reater loss of civilian lives occasioned by the havoc and disorganisation of war, involving at times the migration of masses of people over great distances, and by long-continued and murderous bombing raids, in many of which the crowded residential quarters of cities have been selected as objectives. According to the Chinese authorities, however, the Japanese have exaggerated the losses suffered by the Chinese and have minimised their own losses. The figure of 59,998 killed admitted by the Japanese from the beginning of hostilities in July, 1937, until April last certainly seems remarkably small, bearing m mind the long and stubborn battles fought at Shanghai, and on the approaches to Suchow, Nanking, Hankow and elsewhere. On the known facts, the Chinese estimate of 870,000 Japanese casualties —i.e., killed and wounded —seems likely to be much nearer the mark. The events now reported in Hupeh suggest that, in the absence of some entirely unforeseen collapse in Chinese morale, the Japanese are still at an early stage in their self-appointed task of conquering China and converting her into a vassal State. Japan is faced by an increasing danger of international complications in her hold on the Chinese coastal zone, and is hardly in a position to take the continued passivity of Russia for granted. At the same time the hold of the invaders on much of the Chinese territory they have to some extent occupied is evidently imperfect and uneasy. The circumstances of the conflict in Hupeh presumably are typical of those which Japan must expect to encounter in her further efforts to overcome the resistance of the Chinese central armies. An American writer said recently that: — Japan’s advance has been on the basis of material strength and spiritual weakness. China’s defence, to date, has been the result of the mind’s resistance to matter. The war is now developing in conditions in which Japan’s material strength —particularly her mechanised transport, will count for much less than it did in enabling her to conquer the Chinese plains. Battles are now being fought, and must be fought if Japan hopes to extend her conquest, in hill and mountain country in which the dogged valour of Chinese soldiers, relying in the main on simple weapons, will present increasingly formidable obstacles to invasion. Stories that Italian and Spanish troops are to be sent to Japan’s assistance may be fanciful, but there is not much doubt that Japan finds herself involved in increasing difficulties in her invasion of China. PEDESTRIAN CROSSINGS. ROME truly extraordinary arguments are being used by critics of pedestrian crossings. For example, the Wellington Automobile Association states in its annual report that pedestrians continue to figure in a large number of accidents and that statistics show that in the greatest number of cases, pedestrians themselves arc responsible for causing the accidents. The report says also that pedestrians in Wellington are not taking advantage of the crossings, tallies taken at some points showing that a large proportion of people cross the streets elsewhere than between the safety lines. If this and more to a similar effect is intended as argument against the establishment and use of pedestrian crossings it is singularly weak and irrelevant argument. If people are neglecting to use safety crossings, and as a result are being killed or injured by motor vehicles, the remedy needed presumably is to enforce the use of pedestrian crossings, but can hardly be •to do away with them. In commenting recently on a serious increase in the number of fatal and other accidents on the roads, the Minister of Transport commented on the very large proportion of one-car accidents —accidents implying some failure on the part of drivers—included in the total. It was not suggested by the Minister or anyone else, however, that the remedy in this instance was to stop using motor-cars. The remedy suggested was more careful driving. Similar considerations may be applied to pedestrian crossings. If these, in the right conditions of use and control, are a means of making the streets less dangerous, then a good case is made out for their establishment. That the crossings will not add to the margin of safety if they are not used is neither here nor there. No one appears to have attempted to state any actual objections to putting down pedestrian crossings in Afasterton. These aids to safety are being used in towns larger and smaller than Masterton, from end to end of the Dominion. They are being maintained in towns where motor traffic is very much lighter than it is in Masterton and also in towns and cities where it is very much heavier. What, then, are the special reasons, if any, which make it inadvisable to put down pedestrian' crossings in Masterton?