It is now five weeks since "war" has broken out in Shanghai and a few weeks longer since hostilities between Japan and China commenced in North China. During this period much ammunition has been expended, many lives of combatants and non-combatants lost, thousands maimed and millions of dollars worth of property wantonly destroyed, and for what? asks the "British Chamber of Commerce Journal" in its September issue.
The "Journal" from its character cannot express itself on the political aspects of the war and does not seek to do so for the press of all nations has given expression to the world's opinion of this most futile and foolish strife and are not all wars except those of defence foolish?
Considered from the commercial angle one cannot see what advantage can accrue to Japan which would in any way compensate for the loss of life, treasure and trade that the war has already cost, for even were the war to cease now it would take her years to recover as it must be recognized that she has been destroying the purchasing power of her best customer.
Sir Frederick Leith Ross has remarked that aeroplanes "and tanks are not good commercial travellers.' Trade cannot be built on such foundations and neither can friendship be established by methods of compulsion. Force may appear to achieve results but it is in itself the most powerful instrument for stimulating that feeling the alleged teaching of which it is intended to eradicate.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.