The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH AND INCORPOTATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. FRIDAY, MAY 25, 1928. CHINA AND THE POWERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 122, 25 May 1928, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH AND INCORPOTATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

FRIDAY, MAY 25, 1928. CHINA AND THE POWERS.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

Nothing of a decisive character lias happened in China during the past week. It is evident that the Northern armies have been badly beaten, but contrary to expectation Chang Tso-lin apparently does not intend to retreat at once into Manchuria, and the latest developments suggest that the crisis of the Chinese civil war has not even yet reached its final culminating point.

But quite apart from the outcome of the struggle between Chiang Kai-shek and Chang Tso-lin, a great deal of importance necessarily attaches to the attitude of Japan at this present critical juncture. The "special interests" which Japan claims in Manchuria have never been precisely defined, and though the suggestion that Japan may declare a protectorate over Manchuria is probably premature, it is likely that the Japanese Government will do its utmost to save the northern province from becoming a battleground for the rival armies. Chang Tso-lin has attempted rather dexterously to exploit Japan's "special interest" in Manchuria by suggesting that Japan should Avarn the Nationalists not to interfere with the withdrawal of the Northern armies beyond the Great Wall. But Japan is not likely to compromise herself in this way, and she has just announced to the Great Powers that she intends to abide strictly by the policy of nonintervention agreed upon at Washington six years ago.

It is true that this statement of policy is accompanied by a reservation to the effect that Japan's pledge to the Powers will not be violated by "any action she may deem it necessary to take to preserve peace in Manchuria." This exception is sufficiently comprehensive to be rather alarming. But Japan's evident desire to reassure the Powers on this point is convincing proof that, she does not at present contemplate any steps that might compromise still further the prospects of peace in the Far East. On this point the attitude of Britain and the United States is all that could bo desired. So anxious is the American Government to avoid any possible clash with the Chinese that it is arranging to deport its nationals from Tientsin and Peking, so as to keep them out of harm's way. At the same time our Foreign Minister has asserted Britain's unalterable determination not to intervene in the Chinese eivil war and to take only such steps as may be necessary to safeguard the lives and possessions of British subjects.