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Wairarapa Times-Age W EDNESDAY , OCTOBER 22 1941. WILL JAPAN BACK DOWN?

THOUGH it might seem incredible, there was still a chance X that Japan might back down, Mr Hallett E. Abend, a wellknown American journalist now visiting New Zealand, observed in an address to the Wellington Travel Club yesterday. Mr Abend added, however, that it was hardly believable that Japan would consent to leave China, which was one of the essentials, and that Japanese aggression was no more to be overcome by agreement than was Nazi aggression. It is in fact not easily to be credited that the men now controlling the policy and the destinies of Japan will make any approach to an agreement with the democracies. The fust step in that direction of necessity ■would be an unqualified abandonment by the Japanese Government of. alleged rights and pretensions. This does not mean that the democracies whose relations with Japan have now come to such a critical pass are seeking to impose harsh terms on that countiv. It means only that Japan is l being asked, as a condition 01. peaceful agreement, to desist from international brigandage. Probably no nation, standing clearly convicted of international crime, has ever been offered an easier way out than is now offered to Japan. This was made evident by the Chinese Minister to Australia, Dr Hsu Mo, in a talk to the Millions Club in Sydney recently. We have no intention of punishing the Japanese (said Dr Hsu Mo). All we ask is the withdrawal of Japanese troops (from China), the return of wrongfully occupied territory, and of the rights of which we have been deprived. All the fine phrases, such as “New Order in East Asia” and “Co-prosperity sphere” now being used by Japanese statesmen and diplomats amount simply to demands that Japan should be allowed to retain what she has already stolen of the territory and goods of her neighbours and to extend her thefts. What the newly-installed Japanese Premier, General Tojo, and his colleagues have to decide is whether Japan shall attempt to persist in a policy of murderous and predatory aggression. If they consulted the true interests of Japan they would back down forthwith. The members of the Japanese autocracy pay almost as little regard, however, to the interests. and welfare of the people over whom they rule as to those of the millions they are seeking to enslave. At the same time, the insensate ambitions of these autocrats are being whipped up by a numerous and elaborately organised German Fifth Column and by a native Fascist party whose members, according to a correspondent, “include some of the toughest bullies in the underworld of ‘patriotic’ politics.” OUR RAILWAY SERVICE. PARTICULARLY where journeys to and from Wellington are concerned, our railway service,-which is now largely a rail-car service, is being overtaxed in a degree which already approaches disorganisation and demoralisation. The demand for seats, especially at weekends, far exceeds the available supply, and even where a. journey one way can be arranged there is frequently reason for concern as to whether a return trip can be made at the time intended. With the opening of summer, and, amongst other things, the concentration at Trentham Camp of military training for overseas service, this state of affairs is likely to be aggravated and intensified. It is, of course, usqless to expect the Railways Department and its staff to achieve} impossibilities. A shortage of rail-cars and the overtaxing and' occasional breakdown of those that are available are factors ip the situation which must be accepted meantime and which it may be impossible to remedy until the war is over. Passenger services of the kind under notice may impinge on questions of national economy and the best use to be made of national resources in time of war. While, however, baldly uncompromising demands for the radical improvement of these services to the point of fully meeting public demands would not be warranted, it is not unreasonable to suggest that the question of effecting what improvements are practicable should be brought under orderly review. Unless it is to be understood that a considerable proportion of the people who desire to travel by rail between the Wairarapa and Wellington must be content to stay at home, or to extend their stay away from home, some means must be found of am' iirying the current service. On the evening of Labour Day, October 27, the position is to be met by running a steam train to Wellington in place of a rail-car. In the conditions now existing—they are, of course,"accentuated by restrictions on the use of petrol—it might be both justifiable and desirable to run steam trains more frequently than has. hitherto been customary to cope with the rush of weekend traffic, or alternatively to supplement the rail-car service in rush periods with a bus service by road. Tn the case of the steam trains some attempt might be made to speed them up, not by reckless running, but by cutting down long halts which to the lay observer appear to serve no useful purpose whatever.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAITA19411022.2.11

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 October 1941, Page 4

Word count
Tapeke kupu
849

Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22 1941. WILL JAPAN BACK DOWN? Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 October 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22 1941. WILL JAPAN BACK DOWN? Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 October 1941, Page 4

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