JAPANESE AIMS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 207, 2 August 1937, Page 7

JAPANESE AIMS

CORRIDOR IN CHINA. AN AID AGAINST SOVIET. MILITARISTS CONTROL POLICY. (United Press Association. —By Electric Telegraph,—Copyright.) (Times Cable.) Received August 2, 11.25 a.m. LONDON, Aug. 1. The Times Shanghai correspondent says: "The Japanese military party has "assumed full control of the political situation irrespective of the peaceful aims towards China favoured by the industrial and financial interests. The militarists desire to create a corridor in North China to develop production sufficiently to support a niilitary establishment close to the Russian frontier, believing that the Soviet Army, owing to the recent purge, is at present incapable of external violence.

“The militarists also plan a further extension southwards into China, which realises that, if Japan is not opposed, a great section of North China will be irrecoverably lost. “China’s military organisation, though improved, cannot match Japan’s, thus Nanking favours peace until her military effectiveness is increased, hut the national sentiment demands war. , . ' “The situation in the Pekin and Tientsin areas is quiet apart from sporadic bombing and shelling of districts where isolated bands of Chinese are maintaining guerilla warfare.”

CHINA DETERMINED. RIGHTS MUST BE RESPECTED. LONDON, August 1. The Manchester Guardian’s Nanking correspondent says the Japanese bombing of Tientsin, especially the apparently wanton destruction of schools and universities, has merely stiffened the Central Government’s determination to fight. General Chiang Kai-shek, in a, strongly-word-ed statement, made it clear that there is no prospect of a negotiated settlement except on the basis of absolute respect for Chinese sovereignty in North China, The Chinese military authorities are not revealing their actual plans, but there is good reason to believe that the Nanking Government is going ahead grimly with preparation for what it regards as a life-and-death struggle and when it hits, it will hit hard.

In a Tokio message the situation is reported to be quiet, apart from mop-ping-up operations. It is claimed that the main body of the Chinese Twenty-ninth Army has been driven back to the Yungtung River. Scattered bodies of Chinese, however, are still active The artillery duel lias been resumed at Tientsin. Three hundred Japanese residents were attacked at Tungchow. Tho Chinese troops remaining in Pekin have been disarmed. The city continues quiet and Japan is still confident of peace. Official circles declare that General Chiang Kai-shek is too intelligent to desire a conflict.

HEAVY SHELLING. A message from Tientsin says the Japanese heavily bombarded the former Austrian concessions district, scores of shells falling in the thicklypopulated native area. No reason is given for the bombardment. The Chinese resistance in North China has collapsed and the survivors of the Twenty-ninth Army are fleeing to Paotingfu. An official Japanese statement says that the punitive measures will be concluded to-night. Whether a settlement is possible depends on the cessation of the flow of Chinese troops into Hopei. It is believed the Japanese demands include the suppression of antiJapanese movements throughout China and the demilitarisation of Hopei. A Paris message says Dr. Wellington Koo stated that China was carrying on conversations with the signatories to the Nine-Power Treaty to ascertain their viewpoint. “China bears the brunt of Japanese imperialism, which will affect the balance of power in the Pacific,” he said. “Japan plans to move against Russia and after that against south China, Malaya and the Dutch East Indies.”

ESSENTIALS OF PEACE. “It is absurd for Japan to talk of peace while the Japanese occupy Chinese territory,” declared the Chinese spokesman at Nanking. “Ueace is only possible if the Japanese return to the positions occupied prior to the Lioukouchiao incident and restore Chinese administration in Pekin and Tientsin.”

The Chinese anticipate that the present lull only presages further Japanese offensives and probably a drive toward Paotingfu, where the 29th Army is reorganising. The Chinese estimate that the Japanese attack on Tientsin caused 700 civilian deaths and the destruction of a thousand houses and public buildings, chiefly due to aerial bombing. The corpses of humans' and animals are piled up in the streets and looting has broken out. Hundreds of Chinese refugees are attempting to enter the foreign concessions, which are tightening the regulations. The Japanese military spokesman declares that the bombing of the Austrian concession was due to an attempt to dislodge snipers. The Japanese are sandbagging the northern end of the international bridge facing the barricades of the French settlement, with which a serious dispute has arisen. The Consul (M. Charles l.eppisier) is accusing the Japanese of cutting tiie communeiations of the French Concession with the military base, and also of machine-gunning a French detachment, wounding a sergeant whom the Japanese prevented from receiving medical attention for six hours, and inflicting various indignities. COMMANDER’S PLEA.

The commander' of the Chinese troops in North China, General Sung Cheh-yuan, has telegraphed the Government holding himself responsible for the situation, tendering his resignation and asking for punishment. The Government in not acceding to his wishes urged him to continue to lead the troops against the Japanese.) The Chinese have rejected the Japanese demand to evacuate Swatow. ' A Tokio message says that Japanese ’planes bombed four • Chinese tioop trains and set fire to the Paotingfu railway station. Japanese scouting ’planes report that 25 Chinese troop trains are travelling north on the Hankow-Pekin and TientsinPubow railways. The War Office’s casualty lists of

the fighting on Thursday and Friday indicate 78 killed and 197 wounded.

r the Japanese newspaper, Nielli Nichi, . declares that the Government is appropriating an additional £18,000,000 to deal with the Chinese situation. General Sugiyama declares that Japan is making the fullest preparations for the worst. The Government is permitting foreign vessels to p.rt'.-ipate in coastal 'trade in order to alleviate the shortage of cargo slave, due to the Chinese opentnus.

TROOPS MASSING

FIRING ON JAPANESE ’PLANES.

Received August 2, 9.50 a.m. TOKIO, Aug. 1

A large body of Chinese Central Government troops belonging to the 30th 31st and 33rd Divisions under General Sun Lien-chung, is massing in Chochow and Tienghsing, north of 1 aotingfu. where they are co-operating with the 29th Army and firing on Japanese scouting ’planes.

REVOLUTION PREDICTED.

LEON TROTSKY’S BELIEF. MEXICCTCITY. July 31. Leon Trotsky predicts that the Si noJapanese conflict will hasten a military catastrophe and social revolution in Ja.pati. He expresses the oninion that Russia, will eventually, aid China.