WHEN A WAR IS NOT A WAR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 307, 28 December 1937, Page 10

WHEN A WAR IS NOT A WAR

Students of the precise in the written and spoken word, says a Manchester Guardian contributor, ought to be grateful for the information imparted in inc following paragraph from the Japan Weekly Chronicle:— It was formally decided at Thursday's Cabinet meeting that the SinoJapanese conflict, which has hitherto been officially called lhe North China affair (Hokushi Jihen), should hereafter be called the China affair (Shina Jihen). This obviously supplies an answer to the well-known riddle “When is a war not a war?’’ The answer is not (as some stupid people may suppose) “When it has never been formally declared’” but “When it is an affair. ’ This bears out the truth of the familiar assertion by the French (a notoriously logical people, “Les affaires sont les affaires”; or, as another representative of that logical race it supposed to have remarked after witnessing the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, “C’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas la guerre—ce n’est qu’une affaire.” However, two signs of grace may be noted. In the first place, even the Japanese Cabinet admits that the matter is now rather more'tthan an '‘incident”; it is officially raised to the full status of an “affair.” In the secone?, it has spread from a “North China affair” to one that affects China generally. If this outbreak of reckless candour goes any further somebody in Tokio will presently be hinting that the “China affair” begins to look almost like evidence of definitely hostile intentions on the part of Japan.