A pamphlet laying before the American public a statement of the facts and significance of the Sine-Japanese crisis in Manchuria was issued yesterday by the Harvard Chinese Students Club. The club, meeting in the Phillips Brooks House on September 26 resolved "to urge strong action and firm attitude on the part of the Chinese government, and to appeal on behalf of their country to the judgment of the world for adequate support to vindicate humanity and justice."
The pamphlet issued by the club, which is now being circulated throughout Cambridge, reads as follows.
"While the war is being universally renounced as an instrument of national policy, the recent conduct of the Japanese troops in Manchuria, ravaging the sovereign domain of China, is an obstacle to the peace and happiness of all mankind. We, the Chinese students at Harvard University, have watched the development of the situation with particular concern, and feel impelled to submit to the world a statement of facts for its candid judgment.
"Manchuria, comprising the Three Eastern Provinces of China with an area of 363,700 square miles and a population of nearly 30,000,000, has been the paramount object of Japanese expansion for about thirty years. The South Manchuria Railway Company, a Japanese Government-controlled concern, led the exploitation of the country with a view to monopolizing all economic and industrial enterprises and crushing the interests of the Chinese themselves. In recent years, however, the Chinese have been developing their own industries and Japan felt aggrieved, as she saw they would obstruct her grandiose schemes. Not a few Japanese urged "strong action" against China. A convenient instrument they found in the immigration of the Koreans to "colonize" the country. During the past three months the clash of the Koreans and the Chinese at Wanpaoshan, the anti-Chinese massacres in Korea, and the Nakamura case happened in succession, putting the Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations under great strain. But as China refrained from any hostile actions, Japan could find no excuse for further aggression. Suddenly her brutal force befell China with a wrath and ferocity hardly tolerable by humanity.
A False Pretext
"It was on the 18th of this month that the Japanese troops on the South Manchuria Railway, falsely alleging the destruction of a bridge by some Chinese, instantly started in many directions to disarm the Chinese garrisons in South Manchuria. The railway zone being soon outrun, the Japanese soldiers speedily occupied Mukden, the capital, and practically all other strategic points. Hundreds of Chinese were killed. Altogether there are now more than 14,000 Japanese troops in Manchuria. Additional forces had landed in Tsingtao, farther south in the province of Shantung, and gunboats appeared in the Liaotung Gulf. Since the news agency in Manchuria is under Japanese censorship, no adequate reports are available. But even from the information which has thus far reached us, it is obvious that the Japanese out-rages have wrought great haveoc in northeastern China. On the 22nd, the League of Nations signified its decision that the solution of the question lies in an immediate cessation of hostilities and withdrawal of troops.
"The conduct of the Japanese soldiers is the more unpardonable, as Japan is a co-signatory of the Kellogg Anti-War Pact. The Pact provides in unmistakable terms: "The High Contracting Parties agree that the settlement or solution of all disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them, shall never be sought except by pacific means." The actions of the Japanese military officers, however, are in such flat contradiction with the terms of the Pact that they virtually put aside the solemn renunciation of war to facilitate their imperialistic aggrandizement.
"We appreciate the move taken by the League of Nations and the government of the United States in urging an immediate cessation of hostilities. Japan must either give up completely the places unlawfully occupied or become once and for all the enemy of the peace of mankind. The spirit of the League Covenant, the Washington Treaty, and the Kellogg Pact must not be suffered to die at the hands of Japanese aggression.
No Solution Reached
"However, as has been pointed out, although the League and the American government have suggested a peaceful settlement, yet the means by which the final solution can be reached have not yet been devised. In fact, Japan now strongly refuses to submit to League intervention, declares to the world that her troops have been withdrawn except at three places, and urges a direct negotiation with China. We now beg leave to say that any attempt at settling the affair is entirely out of question until the Japanese have evacuated all the places.
Direct Negotiation
"Further, direct negotiation between China and Japan will not only fasten a prejudicial settlement upon China, as had happened before; but also, since Japan has violated the peace treaties of the world, an equitable adjustment of her wrongs cannot be effected unless by arbitration. China's plea for an international commission of inquiry to examine the facts has not yet been accepted by the League Council.
Japanese a Baneful Force
"For over thirty years China had been suffering from the baneful influence of Japanese force; and now when she is deeply afflicted with civil war, communism, and a devastating flood, she is once more brought to face its brutality. A more complete list of calamities perhaps cannot be found in the history of any people. In creating troubles at such critical moments, Japan's militarism discards humanity itself. The Manchurian crisis deserves the close attention of the world, if the peace and happiness of mankind are to survive.
