Peace Seekers' Union Wanted To the Editor of the "Nomru-CHINA Dai.y NEWS"
Sm;—The misery and criminality of an aggressive war, undeclared by Japan upon China is bringing destruction and outrage and untold suffering to thousands upon thousands Oi innocent and inoffensive people. "There appears to be no hope of any alleviation of their affliction until we can arouse the peacefully inclined peoples of the world so as to make them a body capable of enforcing their will upon the war-mongers and reversing their present reactionary politics for ones of peace, co-opera tion, and genuinely democratic progress.
'A fatal weakness is our obsession ior vanity and personal glorification which causes men and women to regard their responsibilities as citizens as of little account compared with the need to get on to use every Opportunity io advance their personal security and status even although it means exploiting their public services to private ends at the expense of those who have made them what they are. If this were not so, the world to-day would bear witness of it.
We need a new outlook. We need leaders, especially China, whose leadership is due to their genuine love Of the people, and who, like Lenin, can forget themselves, their careers, their personal security even, in the advancement of the common wellbeing. Meanwhile let us agitate for a union between the countries that seek pedee and by so doing put an end to this nightmare preparation for an unspeakably horrible and destructive clash of the nations of the world. Let us say with George Bernard Shaw that "So long as we hold fast to the Franco-British Pact a European war is impossible. One need hot be honest to grasp this. All that is necessary is for one not to be a born fool. An alliance of the U.S.S.R. and China with the British Empire and Frange is the ace of trumps for our sipjmatis Can any one challenge the truth of this?
Why do the Japanese rage at Britain? They are pulling down British flags and beating up British police and also they have beaten up many others of British nationality.
Yet Britain is tuking no part at all in the Japanese undeclared war on China, All Britain has done is to declare that she will defend Hongkong. And so far Hongkong has not been threatened.
Why then are the Japanese angry? Because they are told that the arms with which China defends herself ere British-made arms. That is not true.
The fact is that a very large proportion of the arms now pouring into Chiba are German arms, But the Japanese public cannot be informed of this; for it might make them change their mind about the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo axis. So Britain is carrying Germany's yellow baby.
Note—Since Japan invaded China she has sent out thirty-two Notes of explanation and apology to neutral Powers. Ten to Britain, sixteen to the U.S.A., four to Italy, two to Germany, and I assume that many more Notes will be forwarded by Japan to the above-mentioned Powers before hostilities are ended.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.