The dispute reported by our Peking correspondent over the itutting of the Customs at Tsing-fie 48 not the first to which, thig locality has given tige between China and Japan, nor, we fear, will it be the last so long as China, not uninfluenced, by secret German machination, maintains her present attitude of died mistrust towards Japan. What China desires in the present instance is perfectly plain. By seeking to assert her right to choose a Customs staff for Tsing. tao, she introduces the thin end of the. wedge,.a familiar and well-known device of Chinese rulers. To-day it ie " question of Customs; to-morrow, perhaps, of policing; later on, of the judiciary; and by-and-bye a very pretty body Seoaaitte as she is for a vast precedent has been erected.
masa of foreign interests, for the welfare of Tsingtao and for the maintenance of peace in the Far East 80 long as the war last, it ig not surprising that Japan has so far met such attempts with flat hegation.,..Aa regards the Tsing-fae, Customs, we. believe that Chinese territory because it -was! once leased to. Germany and be-the original lessee -has been dispossessed., As such, it is amenable to the. machinery of the international Customs Ser-Nise, and to, interfene..with the working.of that machinery in the way attributed to Japan la to set, a.precedent that might.give to serious trouble in future. The fact that the Custome is international ly controlled suggests that the present dispute may be easily adjusted.
We see nothing in Baron Kato's speech to exclude the idea But the incident has acquired of an ultimate settlement' satis-undue importance owing to the factory to China. But we do see i lo impression produced a warning that some degree of by the report that Baron Kato, patience must first be exercised, Foreign Minister of Japan, had and we cannot think that warning repudiated any idea of handing in any degree uncalled for or un-back Kiaochou to China. What natural. Those who talk glibly Baron Kato actually said in the about retrocession would appear Diet was that he had given no to have given little thought to assurance to the British Govern-the meaning of the word. Apart ment of the return of Kiaochou from the multitudinous interests to China—a very different affair. at stake, the future disposal of But even thus it is imim-which calls for. careful thought, jposaible to. get a fair idea}any hasty action now might have of the Minister's meaning}the result of upsetting much of without reference to the circum-ithe work of the past three stances in which the speech was|months.
Germany is still able made.
When the Diet opened,|to exercise no emall influence in the Government was violently at-]<ome at least of the counsels of tacked by the Seiyukai pu what Peking; and, were Kiaochou to be that somewhat Chauvinistic party] handed back to China to-day, it Julleged to be the si its] would not improbably be as much foreign policy. That attack wi German in fact if not in name based on three main argument three months hence as ever. it that Japan had deliberately limit-was. Tt is a, capital mistake ed her sphere of action in the to suppose that any one part. of war; that she had promised Great the territory concerned in the war Britain and the United States to can be disposed of apart from any hand back Kiaochou to China; other. In due course, peace nego-and that she had allowed herself tiations will, as in previous wars, to be left out of the agreement deal.with all questions.compre-between Britain, France and Rus-tensively and China may rest sia that neither would make peace assured that, she will lose nothing with Germany without the other by waiting patiently for that day. two, In defending the Govern-At present she will inevitably do ment, Baron Kato said that the herself more, harm than good by first report was a misunderstand-her suspicious attitude. It is ex-ing of the British, Press, Bureau, on. ceedingly regrettable that she was which representations had. been unable herself to secure peace and made to Great. Britain; that the order within her own frontier, second was only a statement of As things were, it was inevitable one newspaper for which he waa that other parties: should do the not responsible and which was work for her, and she may.re-incorrect; and that as regards the. mekober that it, is largely due to third, Japan and Great. Britain Japan that from one end to the already had an agreement for coother..of: her vast seaboard, her operation in discussing, terms of merchants. can henceforward pur-peace. In.answer. to further sue their evocations in tranquillity. questions, the Minister said "that For the rest, she has Baron Kato's the Japanese Government bad not assurance that Japan desires no declared war against Germany for territorial aggrandisément, but the sake of any territorial aggranpeace in the Orfent. discment, but, as stated at the time, for the sake' of maintaining NOTES & COMMENTS, peace in the Orient and in compliance with the Anglo-Japanese Deo. 2, Treaty of Alliance. The question
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.