Effect ow China To the Editor of the "Nommt-Cunxa Dany News!
Sin—The haste of the Japanese in trying to reap a quick harvest from the occupied territories as well as to undermine the financial structure of the Chinese Republic has given rise the widespread smuggling in North China, It is not too much to expect that this smuggling will. spread to other parts of China dealing blows fo tne receipts of the Maritime customs as it spreads, Tt has had one advantageous effect however forcing. the Chinese middle class merchant, business man, factory owner, fand banker to realise' that Japanese domination means something more than Just having Japanese troops in Peiping, Tientsin, along the railways, with an odd garrison thrown in, Shanghai, Nanking, and Hankow. 1 omit a garrison in Canton as the cantonese are too hot-tempered 0 fand that sort of thing. It the mid~ classes in China, have up to now Fefused to realise''that it is them to oppose the Inroads of the Japanese they should now understand hat unless they full those duties to their country that conditions of the Twentieth Century imposes" upon them they may awake to find the country under the heels of foreign domination, This question of the reluctance of the Chinese middle class to shoulder Its burdens of taking part in the a ministration of the country Is not 20 peculiar a phenomenon as it would seem. The Chinese middle class which could almost be Identified wit the merchant community has been Dorn, nurtured, and matured in trade. Tt has confined its attention and netivities to. the main task of and buying the products of the country and forthe country. Although the merchant middle class has shown no small ability for organization and ministration in matters connected tending, the guilds, and even tional organizations uniting Jhants, the class as an ntity has never claimed nor desired hand In the government of the country. This Is not to be wondered at since the advent of the Manchu rulers restored that very feudalism out of which China was emerging in the closing years of the Ming dynasty. The Manchus were only able to maintain themselves In power by supe imposing a feudal aristocracy of alien lood supported and assisted by a subservient Sino-Manchu bureaucracy which really ruled the country.
The revolution of 1911 removed the Manchu, ut Toft the power, to ra country in the hands of the rema ante of this. Mauch ureauertey. And the middle class of China. the hourgeosie, the merchant, the modern factory owner, the banker have not yet realised that theirs Is the right to Tule and to have a say in the Gov-armment. And It they have no Ideasas to their right to have a say in the government then they feo) that the duty of defending the country ited from their backs. I am pleased to think that smuggling by the Jape nese throughout China will make them come to this realisation, "And that to "stop smuggling, les may lower the tari Lowering tariffs as a solution to Japanese protected smuggling. apart admission that the "eternal Verilies" have no place at present in the Far East, will deal a staggering blow to Chinese capital and Chinese Industry. 'The gains of Chinese dustrlalists during the preceding dec-fade In the silk, the colton and the sugar Industries' will at one blow be eradicated, And by that lowering of fariffe China will admit that she is destined to remain politically and economically a semi-colonial country exchanging agricultural products for the industrial goods of Japan. It is a well known fact that "the way to make the middle class of any counity ait up and take notice is to dig Into Its pocket. The Inauguration of a regime of smuggling by the Japanese. militarists is in part intended foserveto show in a tangible manner how. their own. industelal middle classes will bennet from the out and ut control of North China by Japan and thus be able to Justify' the mea: ures which the Japanese Army intends to take in the not distant future When we therefore sum up the position in: North China, in Tnner in Fukien we find that the fo realise that the Japanese yovernment is in office because it is in complete accord with the Japanese Army and. Navy) Is steadily making the utmost use of the opportunities afforded it to gain footholds in stret ogle centres of China so that when the time comes for the final effort to subjugate this country they will be able to accomplish their aims with the least expense of men and money.
Whereas formerly there might have been some argument thatthe subjugation of China by Japan was not the realms of "reel polities" the situation to-dsy and the general course of events internally and ex-{ernally. will more easily dispose of those arguments then before, It is reported that Sung Cheh Yuan has signed an agreement with the Japan ese for Joint ction against the Chi-hose Communists. By this agreement he Japanese will be able to station their troops along the railways in opel. It is a fact that the Javanese troops will" be. increased to. about 10,000 men during the current month.
'The situation in Fukien is likened already' to Manchuria Just preceding the Mukden Incident, is a mistake to imagine thet reistanee' to. Japan envisages "only tnllitary resistance and war. Japan has for the last four and a half years been waging war against China by fall the means at her disposal and in Spite of 0, polley of "conciliation by 'Concession' on the part of the Central Authorities we have Japan in such a situation where her leaders Ienow that their country. stands upon the brink of victory or—ruin.
The encouragement of smuggling by. the Japanese Government is. an undeniable sign of Japan's weakness Internally" and externally. "There was an orgy of the dumping of Tapanese goods after the Mukden Inident and. the "Shanghai war, Today the markets of the world are tiered to Japan, Where elo can she ump but In China?
smuggled goods. Central We Chinese object to buying authorities would have the fullest support of the people in any measures It may take to bring the delinfu ents and their supportocs to heel Sut lowering tariffs would bring a may and severe criticism if not worse Feaetions in lis wake. Our public organizations would do well. educate fe, people against" buying any commodities offered In China that might be suspected of being fmungled goods. "Fortunately it Is easy {0 spot smuggled goods both by their quality and. their origin.
"The Tlalo-Abyesinian conflict Isa lesson for China, Not ne stich. of our bureaucratic literal would have namely the futility of reslstthor the necessity. for the arearest effort to put up an iron fesintanee, which by itz determination will break the will of the aggressor. But first one looks for that birth of the consciousness of the Chinese tidal classes to its righto and duties the governing ahd. defence of moder slate, then. the crystallizing Of that consciousness into a will to enst. a will to victory. Then and fonty. then will "eternal verities:" one Nemani® come Into their own in the
Shanghai, May 13.
A. Kant,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.