Many people, specially abroad, have hitherto taken the view that the whole affair is not so very serious after all, a mere affair of frontier outposts, so to say, which can be smoothed over by a few polite gestures and formule on both' sides. This is a complete misapprehension of the situation. No doubt, it did Start as an affair of outposts letting off their rifles, but the Japanese losses, said. to have amounted to nearly 160 men altogether, was too great a loss of prestige for the Kwantung Army to swallow, without obtaining in return some quite spectacular and territorial gains. The Japanese military people are scarcely at any pains to conceal this attitude of theirs.
Well-informed quarters here, therefore, take a very serious view of the situation and believe that the Lukouchiao incident is likely to prove to be another turning-point in the history of North China, just as was the Mukden incident of 1931, and that it is the prelude to the separation of the North from the rest of Cina.
The fact that Gen. Sung Cheh-yuan has come up to Peiping is considered in many quarters to indicate that he has come to some definite agreement with the Japanese. His whole attitude in this crisis has been the subject of much and varied comment. In certain Chinese circles, specially among the educationalists, the most violent criticisms are being levelled against him, and these circles make no secret of their belief that he has again sold out. On the other hand, Chinese in close touch with military quarters hold that the anking Government is to blame, and sert that Gen, Sung had no alternative, under the circumstances, but of acceding to the Japanese demands
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.