In addressing the nation through the|s educational and technical leaders gathered in Kuling on July 19, General Chiang Kai-shek not only defined the "minimum four points" of China's conditions for Sino-Japanese ace' but also made a plain statement of the sacrifices which the country would have to] make if it eventually decided on maintaining] those points to the extent of resisting Japanese arms. He concealed nothing. He bluntly intimated that as the weaker power China would have to endure many disappointments and suffer many hardships in taking up the gauntlet thrown down by Japan. General Chiang Kai-shek, in fact, carefully refrained from facile optimism. He merely invited the nation to support the policy of resistance with a united determination to "fight to the end although with the expectancy of eventual victory." No-one can say that the head of the Chinese Government is under any illusions on the severity of the present ordeal. That being so it is surely incumbent on those who guide Chinese public opinion to eschew the creation of an over-confidence which, besides being unjustified by the facts, is calculated to militate against the generation of the spirit so ardently desired by General Chiang Kai-shek. The Government's information machinery has yet to find the most suitable means of adapting itself to war condition In that respect Japanese experience bound to show better results at first, as a Chinese correspondent points out to-da: The Government has, howeve: certain control of its Press and, now that arrangements have been made to regularize the issue of communiques, it should be able to ensure that some of the wilder forms of exaggeration and fiction are avoided. Other e the danger of allowing the general population to be deluded into thinking that the grandiloquent paeans of victory have an; elation to fact, will become acute. Disillusionment cannot be far behind when such easily explodable assertions are being made and disillusionment might bring about the loss of that very morale which the Government is rightly anxious to maintain Let it be clearly understood that these comments do not apply to reticence which is designed to mislead the opp ig side or to reasonable emphasis on successes and corresponding minimization of set-backs. That is the normal procedure of any nation engaged in war. When, however, newspapers and new agencies are permitted to purvey grossly fabricated accounts of victories which patently have not occurred, to persist in repeating rumours the falsity of which have been constantly exposed, the community is being led into an exceedingly dangerous state of mind. There is material for praising the courage of the Chinese troops—General Matsui, the new, Japanese Army Commander, has paid a generous tribute to the qualities of those which resisted his forces' landing—but it is doing a poor service to them and belittling their gallantry and endurance to credit them with amazing feats of victory manufactured entirely by rumour and credulity; Similarly, it is unfair to China to give cur rency to rumours which tend to create a spirit of mob violence. Senseless stories of Japanese attempts to engage agents for poisoning food and other acts contrary to international codes have already been responsible for disgraceful scenes in which perfectly harmless Japanese and hinese have been subjected to mob violence—in some cases resulting in murder—under the crazy de-lusian that they were engaged in espionage or anti-social activities. Decent Chinese opinion Geplores these incidents and would certainly welcome any measure which would prevent them from tarnishing the fair name of Chinese citizenship, to say nothing of the modern Chinese Army whose leaders are so anxious to preserve its reputation and morale.
The unfairness of this neglect of public discipline consists in the inevitable shock of! disillusionment when it comes. From exultant confidence to deep depression there ma: be a sudden fall and the consequent revels of feeling will be most embarrassing. Moreover this atmosphere of unreality prevents Chinese readers from discerning who are and who not their friends. In the bewilderment gross injustice may be done, misunderstandings will be accentuated and, still more tragically, services which might otherwise be rendered will not be available. It is hoped that this plain speaking on a subject which gs2 is specially disturbing China's friends at the present moment will not be misinterpreted. Consistently has the "North-China Daily News" indicated its deep sympathy with China in the dilemma which was.none of her seeking. It has persevered, according, to its lights, in hoping that a peaceful solution might be found for Sino-Japanese differences. It has recognized the force of circumstances which compelled China to take up the defense ive, even to the point of staging an offense ive in the Shanghai area. It would be untrue to the cause which it has thus tried to support if, for any want of courage or out of a mistaken diffidence, it failed to give unqualified endorsement to the views of Chinese observers who are distressed at the false sense of security which mendacity and fabrication are creating among their fellow countrymen. It knows, as those observers know, how violent may be the reaction when the facts can no longer be concealed or ignored. Let a trifling example suffice. Chinese servant astired his master who was evacuating a Japanese amah to Japan that the proposed voyage was impossible as Wayside Wharf was in Chinese hands and that the Japanese had been cleared out of Hongkew and Yangtzepoo. The amah duly departed. When that incontrovertible evidence of the falsity of the information on which his statements had been based was brought home to him, the servant angrily observed "then I shall buy no more Chinese newspapers." Before long that retort to disillusionment may take a less practical but more uncomfortable form. When Chinese reports assert that the Japanese Army landing at Woosung has been annihilated, that Chinese troops hold considerable ground in the North part of the Settlement and when it is subsequently discovered that the "anni-dilated" army is advancing toward Kiating and that Chinese troops are retiring to take up positions further west of Shanghai, it is obvious that the present service of information to the Chinese public is not a service; it is a definite disservice which is terribly unfair to China. It also defeats the cultivation of that firm spirit of resistance for which General Chiang Kai-shek's words already quoted have so eloquently appealed.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.