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THE COUNCIL OF INQUIRY INTO FAR EASTERN AFFAIRS
Hikoichi Motoyama
President of the Council
Branch Office Nichi Nichi Building
Manunouchi, Tokyo Japan
Head Office Mainichi Building Dojima, Osaka Japan
The Council of Inquiry into Far Eastern Affairs-To-A Chosakai-was founded in June 1929 sponsored by Mr. Hikoichi Motoyama, the president of the Osaka Mainichi and the Tokyo Nichi Nichi Publishing Company. These two papers are maintained under this company's management, one being published in the heart of Japan's economic life, the City of Osaka, the other in the centre of its political activities, Tokyo. They are two greatest newspapers in the country.
The organization of the Council is largely made up of the leading members of the staffs of these two papers-those who are particularly concerned with, or especially well versed in the affair of the Far East. In addition, a large number of eminent statesmen, diplomats, scholars and businessmen accepted the invitation to join the Council in various capacities, such as ad- visers, councillors, etc. The Council, of course, is an independent organization from either the Osaka Mainichi or the Tokyo Nichi Nichi.
The principal object of the Council is to promote the peace and welfare of the Far East through systematic investigation of existing conditions and dissemination of the results through- out the world. In this way, it is hoped, the Council may contribute towards the formation of enlightened public opinion first of all among the Japanese whose cultural and economic life is inseparably bound up with that of the Far East in general. At the same time, fully conscious of the organic interrelation existing among different peoples and countries, the Council hopes to obtain the sympathetic cooperation of the international public in furtherance of its plans and purposes.
At this moment the Council feels greatly concerned about the persistent political and so- cial unrest throughout China. Far from striving to impart order and prosperity to the country wearied by prolonged civil strife, the Chinese militarists are busy with their destructive activi- ties, designed merely for the aggrandizement of their private power and influence. It is to be feared that unless they are restrained in time, the damage caused to national industry, educa- tion, means of transportation and communication, and all other national institutions will become irretrievable.
The welfare of China with its territory of over four million square miles and its popula- tion of over four hundred million is a matter of serious concern to all other nations of the world. Its bearing upon Japan is particularly direct and important, due to geographical propinquity, cultural affinity and economic inter-dependence. The Japanese people, therefore, have always taken the keenest interest in the well-being of their continental neigbours and have not spared their efforts in assisting them in their work of national reconstruction. They will do so in the future as they have done in the past.
The time is gone, however, when any nation may claim a monopoly in helping the Chinese in their national distress. On the one hand the magnitude of the task has become too vast for