YANGTSE GUNBOATS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 August 1942, Page 4

YANGTSE GUNBOATS

A SIGNIFICANT TRANSFER. A ten-line Associated Press dispatch tells of the transfer to China of three British and one American gunboat. This will hardly affect the balance of' naval power in the Far East. The boats are river craft, built to operate on the broad waters of the Yangtse. What makes history out of the transfer is the virtual certainty that never again will Britain and the United Slates, nor Germany, France or any other European Power, have a squadron of Chinese river gunboats in its regular naval establishment. Those anomalous squadrons, operating on the inland waters of another nation, were—like the extra-territorial courts, the treaty ports and the foreign administration of Chinese customs houses —all a part of China’s former lack of true nationality, and its dependency upon foreign Powers. That is all over. The Japanese war of conquest, instead of conquering her, has made China a nation in fact as well as in dream. The sleeping dragon finally woke up—and the Japs might well say —“And you’re telling us!” —“Chicago Daily News.’’ >