GARDNER SEES CHINA INCREASING IN POWER

"Both Chinese and Japanese well know that either Japan must win today or surrender her dream of domination," Charles S. Gardner, instructor of Chinese, declared last night in a radio speech. This was the second in a series over station, WAAB, the Colonial Network, presented by the Harvard Guardian.

Gardner said that the visible strengthening of the Chinese government during recent years has almost daily reduced Japan's chances of success in any trial of arms. Chinese resistance at Shanghal in 1932 was already an ill omen for Japanese aspiration of the continent. The repection of 1936 of Japanese demands for an advisory and supervisory position in relation to the Chinese army and government showed that China was aware of its growing power.

In his speech, "China Faces Japan," Gardner traced the historical background of the two countries and cited their present aims. "China in national institutions," he explained, "was forced on Japan after 1854 by her indefensible geographic situation. Japan in 1872 sent to the United States and Europe the important Iwakura Embassy which presented the following year an epoch-making report on Japanese policy in the modern world. It recommended that (1) Japan modernize her institutions; (2) that she arm herself in the western fashion; and (3) that she await the pre-occupation of the Western powers to use her now armament."

Modernization in China was a failure because of the country's size, and her difficulty with domestic revolts. In 1894 war with China over her shadowy suzerainty in Korea gave Japan a chance to prove her military superiority. The obvious mastery of western technique, Gardner said, by a formerly despised oriental neighbor went far to shake Chinese scholars from an attitude of complacent self-satisfaction.

The speaker made no attempt to enlarge on facts, stating that prophecy is at once dangerous and futile. He expressed deepest admiration for the achievements of both countries and hoped that hostilities may be terminated before the relations of these two nations become hopelessly embittered.