1938-10-10 — Page 27

of

has

THE CHINA MAIL DOUBLE TENTH SUPPLEMENT.

CHINA RESISTS

T this time, for retrospection,

it is clear that the first phase Japan's undeclared

war

definitely passed and second phase of indeterminate duration is being entered upon.

This situation is epitomised in the fact that last summer the Japanese regarded their China en-` gagements as an "Incident," to be terminated by September; where- as this summer they have admitt- ed that the war may go on in one form or another for years.

in

Even if it were to stop to-mor- row, so great has been the de- vastation and so sweeping the shifts in population that many believe it would take a century to regain the ground lost China's efforts to assume her pro- per place as a leader among great modern nations. This is probably a much too pessimistic view, cun- sidering the astonishing recupera- tive ability of the Chinese peo- ple, but certainly it will be a mat- ter of decades before the scars of battle can be wholly covered and the tremendous losses to › China's capital (as represented in destroyed mills, factories, villages, and cities) replaced.

*

*

of

Looking back, students economics are instantly struck by the fact that the Sino-Japanese War came at a time of remark- able prosperity. After a con- siderable period of depressed con- ditions, were

on

tack. , and

a

things definitely

better

"Finance

Chinese in pursuance of their| "Scorched earth policy," design- ed to leave little of value for an invader to take over, some by the Japanese who for a rather con- siderable time had it as a settled military policy to destroy China's economic power. (Only later did the civilian element promote the. view that it would best profit Ja-: pan to conserve whatever could be taken over from the Chinese, and operate it for Japanese gain.)

The first few months of fight- ing were almost exclusively a period of destruction, having as a major event the burning and blowing up by Chinese of 100,- 000,000 American dollars' worth of Japanese mill plant in Tsing- tao. To destruction-was present- ly added atrocity, not only through air bombing, which im- pressed neutral observers as by no means altogether directed at military objectives, but parti- cularly through the ungoverned actions of the Japanese army of occupation which took over Nan- king. When Hangchow was taken "over somewhat later, without re- sistance, the picture differed only in so far that there was less slaughter of men believed to be Chinese soldiers in civilian at tire.

By

Commerce" RANDALL

magazine Says that in July

The record in both cities was one of organised and unorganised looting and destruction of pro- perty, outrages, with almost no. from restraint Japanese officers, and general

license

scale

RANDALL GOULD before

of last year China's foreign trade showed an increase of 6.7. per cent on the June total and an ad- vance of 57.8 per cent as com- pared with July, 1936.

the

For the first seven months of. 1937, according to same authority, China's trade showed an advance of 40 per cent over the corresponding period of 1936, with Japan sending nearly 19 per cent of the imports, Ger- many 15 per cent, and Britain 11. per cent

The interruption to this pleas- ing state of affairs was sudden, dramatic, and drastic. To those who have been through the whole tragedy it seems astonishing, not that so much harm has been done, but that it has not been morė. Hundreds of thousands of per- sons, a great proportion of them non-combatants, have been erased from the scene-but in China · such a thing can happen without conspicuous change in the general face of things, especially when it is attended by widespread popu- lation movement rendering it ex- tremely difficult to know the full nature of what has occurred at any given point.

The International Relief Com- mission estimates that 150,000,000 Chinese, out of a total estimated population of around 450,000,000, have been directly or indirectly affected by the aghting. Thirty million persons, at a low estimate, are refugees, and more than 1,000,000 are in refugee camps.

i

Shifting now to a broad sur vey of why this is a convenient point to divide the phases of war, we see that at the outset coast. In North China, Peiping the fighting was almost wholly about the big cities, and along the and Tientsin were the centres. Shanghai held, out-ffort three months, during which there was destruction of a major share of China's ind

stry some

.

on

never

авво-

ciated with the supposedly well-disciplined Ja- panese army. Japanese themselves explain this by saying that the army had been expanded in size too fast and that the soldiers in Central China were not to be com- pared for discipline with those in North China; a statement .rne out by the record. In any event, the cause of Chinese resistance was immeasurably strengthened by these Japanese excesses, which went far to convince the whole Chinese nation that Japanese- guided "Pan-Asia" sounded bet- ter in speeches than it looked in actuality.

Militarily, the Chinese cause reached its lowest ebb with the capture of Nanking by the Japan- ese under conditions amounting to a tremendous debacle for the Chinese forces. Then, if at any many time over a period of months, the Japanese were in position to dictate peace on a basis of victory. That they were not able to do so even under such conditions is likely to be seen by historians as one of the most. significant happenings of the en- tire war. It betrayed a stupendous miscalculation on the part of those in Japan who had been con- vinced that General Chiang Kai- shek was a hated tyrant, that the Kuomintang yoke would be cast off by a rebellious Chinese peo- ple at the first opportunity, and that Japanese "mission", as bring- er of light would be speedily and easily accomplished.

Great hopes were built around the battle of Suchow, Instead, the Chinese actually scored some suc- cess on their own account, deriv-. ing great comfort from the recap- ture of Talerhchwang; and when Suchow finally did fall in eurly summer, Japanese hopes of trap- ping" 200,000 or more... Chinese, troops were disappointed, as the Chinese dailylipped through the lawias mëshed Japanese net!

(Continued on

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