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68. One would think that no intelligent reader could swallow this stuff, but there are indications that a good deal of it is assimilated. I have good reason to believe that what are known as the young Japanese, say up to the age of 40, both official and private, in Manchuria nurse deep resentment against Great Britain. The less rabid regard her as having taken the wrong turning in 1923 and hope against hope that she will see the error of her ways, but almost all consider her as a potential enemy. One cannot help suspecting that this feeling is deliberately fostered by the military. Older Japanese have a saner outlook, but have not the power and the courage to swim against the current.

(3) Schools.

69. Side by side with propaganda, the schooling of the young has been taken in hand. The vast bulk of the people are illiterate. The South Manchuria Railway and foreign missions have done excellent work, but they could only scratch the surface and such native schools as existed at the time of the new régime were swept away. Since 1932 steady progress has been made in the provision of primary education. There are no recent statistics, but in 1934 10 per cent. of the children of school age were attending school and it is probable that the number has more than doubled since. There are at present but few middle schools and there are four universities (the State University, the Agricultural, the Industrial and the Medical universities), taking in 530 students yearly. There are also a law college and civil service college which have recently been opened.

70. The schools use Government text-books, and Japanese is taught in the higher grades. The text-books emphasise the import of the founding of the State and its debt to Japan, revive the teachings of Chinese sages, and of course promote knowledge. It goes without saying that critical faculties will not be developed and the scholar will emerge quite untainted with foreign ideas.

71. A few students will go on to middle and higher education, but for the bulk schooling will end with primary education. But the student's training does not end there. He will have already belonged to the boys' association fostered by the Concordia Society. He will now join the youths' association and presently the young men's association and he will be encouraged to join the young men's volunteer defence corps, where he will receive elementary military training. Finally, he will become a full-fledged member of the Concordia Society, wear its uniform and play his part as a public-spirited citizen. That is to say that he will do these things, if he follows the right path. It is not compulsory, but he will find it pays to do so and in most cases he will.

72. Given the right material similar methods have proved effective elsewhere in welding the population into an automatic machine that responds blindly to the demands made of it. But the population of Manchukuo is, to put it mildly, apathetic. It has no racial memories that can be stirred, no past glories to be revived, no mission other than to play second fiddle to Japan. Under such condi- tions can the people be trained to take a pride in the State of Manchukuo? It is open to doubt.

IX. RELIGION.

(1) General.

73. The State religion forms an important part of the social structure in Japan. There seemed indications a short while ago that the Manchukuo authorities were feeling their way towards some form of State religion. In one case native Christian pastors were asked if they were prepared to do obeisance to the portrait of the Emperor of Manchukuo. In other cases foreign missionaries were asked their attitude towards the Shinto religion. At one town the principal of a mission-run school was asked to take the boys to bow at the local Shinto shrine. At another the scholars were to attend at a Confucian shrine. At the time of the foundation of the State half-hearted efforts were made to revive Confucianism as a religion, and not merely a code of social ethics.

74. There are obvious obstacles in the path of any advance towards a State religion. The Emperor is a pathetic figure and is not surrounded by the halo of

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