Evening star., 1928-10-07
BY COUNT CARLO sFoRzA,
Former Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs
and Ambassador to France.

churia. or, to be exact, upon the Jap.
anese intentions about Manchuria. One
of the informed correspondents wires
Marshall Chang TSo-lin (the wal
lord of Manchuria up to a short time
ago) died as result of bombing out
rage; it was the Japanese military au-
thorities in Mukden who had the bombs
placed under his special train; have
it from White Russian officer who
was in their pay"
NO" writes another. Chang was
Japans trump card; it is his very death
that has provoked the present unrest
in Toxic"
1T is So" confirms a third What
Japan wants is to find another puppet
ruler for Manchuria. They are now
thinking Of Pu-yee, the last Manchu
boy emperor, living at present in a
modest villa in the French concession
at Tientsin They will have him trans
planted TO Mukden as the new head of
Manchuria, which will become de facto
Japanese protectorate."
Other voices now reaching me from
China assure me that no less a grave
and important man than former AM
bassodor Hayashi recently went to
Mukden from Toxic and warned the
heirs of the Chang TSo-lin regime
against any sort of union with the
Kuomin-tang Chinese government, as
such a move would jeopardize Japan's S
special interests and rights. wait and
see" was the notifying final advice of
Baron Hayashi; the ASquithian for
mula used by the former japanese AM
baSSador to London was probably the
most polite form that the veteran
diplomat succeeded in giving to GER
tainly much stronger instructions from
\; ,ar;.a aiRaic
We may dismiss, without any shadow
Of political or historical doubt, all the
Voices of mysterious Japanese plot
tings. Luckily for the peace of the
world, statesmen have much less dra-
matte imaginations than political writ
ers are likely to believe.
But the polite and terrible japanese
warning to the Mukden authorities
seems to me undeniable. And, as 1t is,
and with all the reasons that one may
see and admit in favor of the gigantic
japanese interests in Manchuria, 1t is
no less than veiled intervention In
Chinese affairs and menace.
viii 1t Mean War?
Is it a menace so serious that it may
mean even war?
To answer this question, which is the
problem of the day, one must examine
calmly two elements. One of them IS
an old one-the interests of Japan IN
Manchuria and in the whole Of China,
the two fields of Japanese expansion
which seem sometimes almost antithetic
to each other The other is a new one
the democratic development now TAX.
ing place in Japan, and the fears and
schemes Of the reactionary group which
is in power
have recently returned from travel
ing in China, where I had previously
liver for five years as Italian Minister.
I have been to Manchuria, to the
Kwantung Peninsula and its capital,
Dairen In writing down my impress
sions am sure at least Of their candor
and disintereStedneSS.
It was only yesterday-for the seven
teenth century is bare yesterday In
the annals of China-that Manchuria
was a savage land outside the boundries
of the Centrl Empire. In 1914 the
Ching. sovereign lords of Manchuria
crossed the futile barrier of the Great
Wall and marched upon Peking
whence, installed on the throne of the
Mings, they made themselves masters
Of all China.
Takes Revenge Slowly.
But China took her revenge slowly In
her Chinese way. Today Manchuria, a
country twice the size of France, is
peopled by 22,000000 inhabitants, OF
whom SO per cent are pure Chinese
The Manchu language (the tongue of
yesterdays coEquerors, has periShed in
the flood of Chinese invasion. Only on
the tombs of the Pe-ling, where sleep
the founders of the dynasty expelled
from Peking in 1913, can ancient me-
mortal inscriptions in Manchu still be
found. And these are understood by
no one.
The Great Wall alone, coming down
from the mountains to the sea, still
marks near Shan-hai-kwan the former
frontier of China. The patient labor of
the Chinese has leveled all and over
come all. There where the wall, at the
end Of SO many thousands of miles,
thrustS its foundations into the very
sand of the sea at Shan-hai-kwan
three foreign redoubtS lean against it as
peaceably as farm buildings, flying since
1901 the colors of France, Italy and
Japan, in order to maintain communi-
cations between the Peking legations
and the sea.
Having seen the result of Japanese
efforts in Manchuria, one more easily
the Chinese for all their burning xeno-
phobia, contemplate such invasions-in-
vasions which my regretted American
colleague, Reinsch, deplored as sacri-
dege, carried, as they were and are, to
the very base of the venerable wall
where he sometimes shared my l1ospi-
tallty (ano my cocktails) in a bunRa-
low l had taken for the Summer near
the Italian barracks.
me Chinese were more indifferent
not out Of cynicism, but because they
know better than we do that time al
ways works for them and that the
Iorelgn element, even the Japanese. will
e,tner weary or wear itself out and be
Position Of japanese.
In Manchuria. indeed, the japanese
chimera of an agricultural coloni2at;on
which should have insured for them .
sale continental outlet close tn theiI
lsanos, so presSingly troubled by owe,
population. The Japanese have held >
prlWlegeo position in Manchuria since
tney succeeded to the position of Russia
In 1908 under the terms of the Treaty
OF Portsmouth. They wished to maxi
use OF their privileges to further Jana.
nese emlgratlon. The administration Of
Their, South Manchurian Railway, ar
excellent administration, still has some
items In Its flourishing budget by which
we can trace sums thrown away in thai
vain attempt.
We must realize that everything i'm
PEELED the Japanese to their efforts-th,
1mpossihllity of finding outlets in til,
United States and Australia, the lacl
OF enthusiasm aroused among Japanes
eInigrants for South America, the prox
unity of Manchuria's fertile plains, tn
patriotic conception of seizing the hill
of that sword which menaced the yer,
heart of Japan. mean Korea.
The conquest and assimilation o
Manchuria became for years the orde
of the day throughout the nation. En-
Ian1I q