Aug. 19.
We feel sure that all foreigners who are not actually under the Red spell are in enthusiastic support of the kind of action which General Dinean took on Wednesday as the only possible reply to Mr. Quo Tai-chi's detention of the aeroplane wings at Kiangwan. It is not unlikely indeed that the majority of our readers would have en dorsed an even more direct response to this returned student} impertinence, and that the occupation of the loop railway in the Jessfield district will be more. commented upon for it" mildness. than for its severity. A more direct response certainly would have been to send a force to Kiangwan and bring the aeroplane wings back. There is a bare possibility, however, that the Chinese authorities would have resisted and it is Britain's} policy still to avoid giving occasion for an armed encounter even under provocation, so the railway occupation must be looked upon as a.demonstration and not action necessarily effective in the recovery of the aeroplane wings. It is meant simply as a conspicuous reminder to the Chinese outlaw official elements that if they will not "play the game" according-to any rules at all, we are always in a position to put a stop to the whole mis erable performance. The action taken is just sufficiently disconcerting to stimulate such thoughts—no more: and was presumably meant to effect. no more.
The diplomatic -situation here involved, if we can call it that for convenience, is somewhat different from that which usually accompanies such incidents. Usually a coolie general or group of them, running a lawless course in pursuit of loot or power and knowing that treaties for the rules of international de-coney are going to prove embarrassing obstacles every little while, hires one or more returned students of proved rhetorical power to concoct "policies" for them, to explain eloquently at all times why they should keep no laws.but do as they please, and to make apologies or settle claims asa last resort. Such persons are now the window dressing of every modern mili tarist's establishment, just as a clever and highly paid lawyer is a member of the inner council of every criminal gang in the Occident. The functions of such persons are the same in each case—to tell the chief how laws can be violated safely and to get him out of trouble whence has carelessly exceeded the siifety limit.
In China, however, it is seldom the function of the coolie militarist's apologist to urge a flagrant and conspicuous violation of the rules of international de-coney upon his chief. He is usually far too busy with his) specious explanations and apolories for trouble already created to instigate action that is bound to lead to fresh trouble. It is) in this respect that Mr. Quo Tai-chi seems to have departed from established practice. According to all accounts, when the plane in dispute landed at Kiangwan the military there showed no disposition to make trouble but were, on the contrary, helpful; keeping} off the crowd until the lorries, arrived and the first consignment of parts of the dismembered plane had been sent back to the Settlement. Before the mechanies could get back for the wings, however, Mr. Quo had got busy, had communicated with the military and had prompted them to take an officious and obstinate stand and to refuse to deliver up the wings. He, thereby, abandoned the conventional role of professiona] explainer of offend sive military acts for that instigator and provoker of, trouble. We can only explain this by assuming that the disintegration, demoralization and disgrace of the wretched clique which he has tried to represent have left him desperately careless of appearances or conse quences.
The official Chinese defence of the act with its hackneyed talk' of "legality," appeals neither to reason nor sympathy. The facts of the situation are devastating. It is the usual appeal for rights entailing no obligations. The clique to which Mr. Quo was attached and which wanted recognition as a "Government," has a hundred times over per-Petrated against Great Britain and other Powers, every "act of and has made neither atonement nor apology for a single one of them, It pretended to discharge none of the functions of a civiliz~ ed government in its relations with the Powers, but vociferously claimed all the privileges. Not only was it not recognized as a "Government" with rights, but.it was given clearly enough the international status of a dangerous outlaw unit at large. A great variety of protests and official announcements emanating from many Powers have called attention to violations not only. of the treaties but of the rules of common good behaviour among nations. There is no point in reviewing the cases of firing upon foreign flags, commandeering.. shipping, insulting and abusing consular authorities, mi, rape, arson, loot~ ing, defiling of graves, occupation and abuse of foreign property, kidnapping, blackmail and extortion. Mr. Quo's "government" has been guilty of every criminal and vicious act that ever brought war upon a-nation, and has been internationally pronounced guilty. If this criminal unit is not recognized as danger ously criminal why was a defence force sent here and elsewhere in China by several overindulgent Powers, and why were, foreigners recalled in thousands from the zones over which the "Nationalists" disported themselves?
The rights of Mr. Quo's "government" are precisely those the sight of the Powers of a particularly ruthless gang of outlaws who will abide by mo rule recognized as essential' to the well being of society. Theorerically nil, they are in practice such rights as society—in this case the Powers—for one reason or another, sees fit to extend to them. That the "Nationalist" clique has not been exterminated, therefore, is not thanks to any immunity' which it has earned, but to the over-taxed indulgence of the Powers. That the planes here, for instance, have not bombed Nanking out of existence, as would have been fair and just, is not because the leaders of Mr, Quo's clique have any tht to forbid them the use of China's "sovereign air," but because the too generous peoples of several great nations have wanted to give this clique jo chance to reform and redeem itself. Mr. Quo demonstrated a little more clearly than usual the returned student's reaction to good natured indulgence. It is always the came. We have; had lots of experience of it from Dr, Wellington Koo, from Mr. Eugene Chen, from Dr. C. C. Wu, from Dr. C.T. Wang "und 'a dozen others whom we could name—always overt impertinence. The provocation to a crushing retort overwhelming and, -in the circumstances, all decent people, Chinese or foreign, must agree ith that General Duncan's is a very mild one,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.