July The decision of the Japanese authorities in Korea to utilize troops to back the efforts of the Police in preventing a recurrence ofthe regrettable anti-Chinese riots throughout the country. indicates that the situation is now in hand. It would be too much to say, however, that the incident is closed, The estimates of the number of Chinese killed in these riots vary, but it may safely be said that between forty and fifty have met their deaths at the hands of Koreans, and. over eighty have been seriously injured, while the number of those suffering from slight wounds runs into the hundreds. Business in the Chinese community has been paralyzed by the necessity for all Chinese citizens to seck fuge with the police. Shops factories, and homes have been destroyed, And above all there exists. a' position in which further reprisals on either side may set a spark to. an explosive train which has its ending no one' knows who The explanation of the Wan: paoshan affair, which gave to this ebullition of bad blood, isa simple one. The report made by the Mukden Association for Foreign Affairs has a truer ying to it than either of the official explanations which have so, far been issued. It states that the trouble originated by a Chinese venting land from other Chinese and sub-letting it, to Koreans, who understood that the' sub-lessor had obtained for them permission to construct an irrigation canal. Apparently, however, the sub-lessor had not obtained this permis the action of the Ko setting about the construction of the irrigation works was resented by the Chinese farmers, who feared that the canal would ex-their fields to the danger of floods. The trouble arose when the Chinese attempted by force to prevent the Koreans, who considered that they were in their rights," from continuing their irrigation work, which brought in action by Chinese and Japanese police and introduced Into a minor squabble among agriculturalists an international complication, That this incident alone should: have been sufficient to cause such a flare up against Chinese in Korea it is impossible to be-Hieve. It would appear that it] was: simply the culminating incident in several which have for some time been breeding ill-will
which, is Manchuria, When in, that International boiling pot Chinese, Koreans, and' Japanese must live and work side by aide certain amount of inter-racial rivalry is to be expected. This rivalry, however, seems to have taken the form of petty persecu-Alan by all concerned, official and otherwise. 'The resentment rous-by: this' petty persecution—which might otherwise be described as a series of minor ineults—would be bound to find an outlet at some time or other, And: the: Wanpaoshan affair seems to have been outlet enough. Whatever the merits of the original disputes, there "is_no doubt that the outbreak of rioting in' Korea has shown on the part of Japan an unfortunate Jack of foresight, Reports from Tokyo show that the Japan press fs perfectly aware of this, one paper going so far as to describe the outrages as a "disgrace to the Japanese empire This realization should mi Jiguidation of the "incident easier, Japan, horrified by the pillage and murder, may be trusted to do her share in this, provided there are no further reprisals on the Chinese side. The most recent news, however, is by no means encouraging so far as this is concerned, and it is to be hoped that the Manchurian authorities will exert themselves to the utmost to see that no actions of those under their control make: an already complicated, situation impossible of: friendly solution.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.