PACIFIC PROBLEMS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 September 1940, Page 5

PACIFIC PROBLEMS

CHINA, NEW ZEALAND’S NEIGHBOUR CHECK ON JAPAN’S AGGRESSION. VERY REV. G. H. McNEUR SPEAKS AT OPERA HOUSE. Aspects of the relationship of Britain to China and Japan, and matters of vital importance to New Zealand concerning Japan’s expansionist aims, received the close attention of a large audience at the Masterton Opera House last night, when the Very Rev. G. H. McNeur, of Canton, China, gave an interesting address on “China, New Zealand’s Neighbour.” The Rev. John Davie was in the chair. “It is natural for me to think of China as New Zealand’s neighbour because our mission has been built on New Zealand foundations,” said Mr McNeur. “In the ’sixties and ’seventies of last century great numbers of Chinese came to Otago to seek gold. They came almost entirely from all pans of a vast district north of Canton city, from villages of several thousand inhabitants. The Presbyterian Church in Otago became interested in these people and began mission work amongst them, which culminated ir. Mr Alexander Don, of Port Chalmers, leaving for China to learn their language. For many years he worked amongst them and then returned to New Zealand where he became the best friend that they had in this country. However, he did not gain a great number of converts. It was found that they always returned home when they had made money, so it was t decided to follow up the work in China and thus 1 came to be the first missionary sent over, in 1901. During the 40 odd years that I was there, there was a continual coming and going between the mission in Canton and the mission in New Zealand. Thus it is quite natural for me to speak of China as our neighbour. The early Chinese immigrants were chiefly ignorant Chinese farmers, wholly uneducated to properly represent the civilisation of their nation. Their uncouth appearance led people to belittle China rather than to realise its importance. Today they are completely different in that they are younger men —a second generation of educated men. They could hold their own in competition with most New Zealand children. Some years ago the Hon. W. Downie Stewart said: ‘Our policy of restricting the entry of Chinese immigrants into New Zealand is not because we underestimate them, but because we know their high moral qualities and business abilities.’ ”

Mr McNeur referred to his recent voyage from Hong Kong to IndoChina, across the China Sea, to the southernmost port of the Philippines, to New Guinea, Sydney and then New Zealand. “The voyage reminded me of the natural bridge which connects Australia with Asia in the East Indies and New Guinea,” said Mr McNeur. “That geographical fact has a graver implication now than it had for me eight months ago. The collapse of Holland and France has made the future of Indo-China and the Netherlands East Indies very .uncertain in that: (1) Their significance from a geographical point of view is increased by the enormous, rich natural resources of Indo-China in manpower, oil, rubber, coal, tin, rice, etc. (2) The vulnerability of Australia’s defences, with its huge area ol coastline and unpopulated northern areas. (3) Japan’s ambition for domination over East Asia and the Pacific.”

Mr McNeur then read a broadcast statement by Madame Chiang Kai-shek in which it was emphasised that if China had capitulated, the field would have been left open for Japanese aggression on an unimaginable scale. Had China's vast resources and manpower been available to the Japanese in their plan for southern domination, little could have been done to stop her, but Japan's army was bogged up in China.

“We have to recognise her population problems,” stated Mr McNeur in dealing with Japanese aggression in China. “Her islands are entirely insufficient to maintain her people. Her population is increasing at the rate of one million per year. While sympathising with her problems, thinking people can never agree to her method of solving her problems ” Mr McNeur gave a graphic description of his experiences in the wartorn area in South China, indicating that there was a strong spirit of resistance to aggression in the Chinese people. Japan had almost completely blockaded the coast and held most of the large ports and cities, yet her sphere of influence did not reach very far outside the occupied areas. That influence was being constantly challenged by China's mobile forces, well versed in the arts of guerilla warfare. "The Chinese Government and its people are quite confident that in the end Japan can never conquer China. A puppet Government could never be acceptable to them," concluded Mr McNeur.