Evening Post. MONDAY, JANUARY 24, 1927. PEACE PRECAUTIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 19, 24 January 1927, Page 8

Evening Post. MONDAY, JANUARY 24, 1927. PEACE PRECAUTIONS

The British Cabinet has done a wise thing in taking the two Opposition leaders into its confidence regarding its policy in China. Had this step been taken twenty-four hours earlier, it might have been better still, for then the need for the "official statement" which Mr. Ramsay Mac Donald issued through the "Daily Herald" would have been unnecessary, or might have taken a less critical form. Not that Mr. Mac Donald's statement is open to any serious objection, as it stands.

Precautions, he says, must be taken till negotiations have removed the dangers, but precautions can be easily overdone. No one should welcome more than Chen precautions that do not menace him. My fear is that the limits of wisdom are- being exceeded; that Chen may think that forces are being gathered as the fleet in Disraeli's time.

Mr. Mac Donald does not pay a Very high compliment to Chen's intelligence when he suggests that it may entertain such nonsense as this. "Those who know the Chinese," says Lord Balfour, "tell me that they have a great deal of commonsense and a great power of appreciating facts," and to suppose that one of the very cleverest of them is in any, possible danger of confusing Disraeli's decision to keep the Russians out of Constantinople with Mr. Baldwin's attempt to keep the Cantonese out of Shanghai is ludicrous. Chiang Kai Shek is reputed to command an efficient army o£ more than 200,000 men. He has captured Hankow; by mob violence which he instigated or could not control the British Concession has been captured and the British residents expelled; he has declared for the complete expulsion of all "Imperialistic" Powers from China, and~ for that purpose, is marching.on Shanghai where; his approach has already been heralded by the usual Red propaganda with its crop of strikes and boycotts and riots.

To restrain these disorders and to protect British life and property in Shanghai from external attack is all that the British. Government has in view. The land force to be provided, for this purpose may represent as much as one per cent, of the Cantonese army, and will certainly bo powerless to advance a single mile frorrii Shanghai.. If "no one should welcome more than Chen precautions that do not menace him," he should be glad to get the help of this tiny police force/ It is certainly unfortunate that, while acquitting Sir Austen Chamberlain of any aggressive intention, Mr. Mac Donald should have added that "programmes of action have an unfortunate habit of setting intentions aside," and should have expressed the fear that "the limits of wisdom" were being already exceeded. Even if this expression is not exaggerated en route, it is well calculated to enlarge not the fears of the Cantonese leaders—for they are not afraid-^ but their opportunities for further inflaming the popular fury against the foreign devils. Such things can no doubt be freely manufactured without any external assistance, as the persecution of the Spanish nuns at Foochow through the revival of the mythical charge of baby-killing, supported on this occasion by the production of the corpses, sufficiently shows. The fear expressed by Mr. Mac Donald may,, however, like the good intentions with which he credits Sir Austen Chamberlain, have unintended effects, and the encouragement of the Chinese Reds in their impossible demands is likely to be one of them. If our cabled report of the effect of the interviews between Sir Austen and the Opposition leaders is correct, Mr. Mac Donald's fears.have now been dispelled, and it is to be hoped that he will say so publicly.

Britain's decision to make a filial stand at Shanghai with whatever military ana naval forces are needed in defence of British interests was, we are told, fully explained, and it is understood that both Mr. Lloyd George and Mr. Mac Donald assented thereto. '

The country is in no mood to attempt the impossible task of recovering its' Concession at Hankow by force or to resort to punitive or aggressive tactics of any kind, nor would the stoutest Die-hard in the Government venture to suggest such a policy. The statement reported today as the outcome of the Cabinet meeting on Friday is not a mere blind. "The naval and military dis? positions in connection with China are precautionary," and precautionary only. The conciliatory attitude adopted towards "the legitimate aspirations of Chinese Nationalism" in the Government's Christmas memorandum has not been modified. Negotiations are proceeding at Pekin and at Hankow—that is to say, both with the "de jure" Government of China and with what promises to become its Government "de facto"—and, if successful, they; will largely realise

the concessions offered "for the purpose of placing Anglo-Chinese relations on an equitable and mutually profitable basis, leading to-a friendly settlement."

After the- humiliating ejection from Hankow the hope of any friendly settlement compatible with security and dignity may not seem very bright. But it is at any rate clear that there is no hope at all unless a firm stand is made at Shanghai while the negotiations proceed. As Britain, is conducting these negotiations on her own account, will she have to defend Shanghai on her own account? or will the common peril at last induce all the interested Powers to present a united front? Such a possibility seems to be quite beyond hope. Even the qualified statement cabled by the "Observer's" Pekin correspondent a fortnight ago that "most of the Powers have agreed to regard as an act of war any threat against the Shanghai foreign settlement similar to that at Hankow" is not likely to be realised. The two most important of the other Powers may apparently be ruled out definitely. Whether or not we may accept to-day's report from Tokio that Japan has refused to lend, a hand on the ground "that the dfticacy of the situation, demands that Japan should refrain from the use of naval and military demonstrations indicating force," Baron Shidehara has made it fairly clear that this would be her answer if the request were made. In Pekin the American authorities are said to have "warned their nationals that the signal of trouble in the daytime will be the Blue Peter below the Stars and Stripes on the wireless tower of the Legation." The Blue Peter is not a bad choice, but we are thankful that Britain is not preparing to hoist it in Shanghai.