H.B. TRIBUNE MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1932 CRISIS AT SHANGHAI.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 40, 1 February 1932, Page 6

H.B. TRIBUNE MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1932 CRISIS AT SHANGHAI.

Since touching last week on the threatening aspect of the SinoJapctg'se situation matters have moved with dramatic rapidity at Shanghai towards a seeming climax. Overnight messages were such that it seemed justifiable to expect that to-day we should hear of China issuing a formal declaration of war. However, such further cables as have been received to-day up to the time of writing indicate that the Chinese Government has hesitated to take this irrevocable step and that something in the. nature of a truce has been called. At the same time, this would seem to rest upon a very shaky foundation, and, so far is we have yet heal'd, no common ground for a decisive cessation Of hostilities has yet been reached. This, too, is despite the fact that representatives of foreign nations concerned have been exercising all their influence in that direction. It is thus very evident that both sides have been idirred to the utmost exasperation ;m<l that anything like a peaceable clj i I

is going to be very difficult to effect. As was said here on Saturday last, Japan may find in the actions of other nations elsewhere at different times precedents for the course she has taken at Shanghai. At the same time, and having regard to the principles of the various international pacts and contentions into which she has entered, it might fairly have been expected of her that she would not move as summarily as she has done without at least previous consultation with the other Powers bound to be directly or indirectly affected. The Chinese offences alleged to have been committed against Japanese citizens were, in effect, committed against, the general body of citizens constituting what is known as the Foreign Settlement, occupying well defined areas. It would thus have quite reasonably lain with Japan to call upon the other Powers represented in that community to make common cause with her in resenting the injuries and affronts committed. Instead of doing that, she has elected to act alone, and that, too, in a manner that cannot but involve great danger for all.

A very great deal can be and has been said in the way of justi fication for the stand which Japan took up in Manchuria, where she had special rights and a big body of her nationals to protect. Even in that region it has been argued by some that she has developed her operations well beyond the area to which those rights are confined. So that there need be litre? wonder at suspicions being excited that, despite her protests to the contrary, she has aims oth w than those she professes. For thu. if for no other reason, it would have bean well, in her own ul timate interests, had she made her complaints regarding Shanghai incidents matter for general intervention.

All this may be Sf.id while at the "ime time recognising that Japan has been subjected to a very great deal of provocation, if not from the Chinese Government, then from sections of the Chinese people which their Government appears powerless to control. As a matter of fact, the trouble thr.t has arisen is in very great measure due to the instability ac 1 impotence of the Nanking Administration, to say nothing of its shiftiness and unreliability. When Chiang Kai-Shek, its nominal head, first made his appearance on the scene and, in the civil wars, swept victoriously northward from Canton to the Yangtze, he was hailed as the strong man for whom China had been waiting is her political saviour. But since he has been established at Nan king he has proved himself as little to be trusted as the rest. His policy, if such it may bo called, has been so full of vacillations and contradictions that no dependence could be placed upon him from one day to the next, either by his own people or by outside nations. Thus the position to-day is such that there is really no one who can speak effectively for China, either in the way of de daring war or of making terms of peace. So it is virtually with an excited rabble millions strong, rather than with a people under decent control, that Japan, as well as other Powers, have to deal .t the moment.