In her eloquent broadcast to the people of the United States of America, Madame Chiang ed surprise at the indifference" of Western nations to the situation of China. She realized that China had considerable sympathy and moral support from other countries, but she took the view that the failure to intervene to prevent the aggression of Japan or to side with China in the field in resisting that aggression constituted an abandonment by the West of its system of faith-keeping by treaty. General Chiang Kai-shek has made the same suggestion in his recent hint that the intervention of foreign powers seemed to him to be indicated by the needs of the crisis. Less important, but at the same time estimable exponents of Chinese opinion have also taken that line. Nor is it difficult to detect in some Chinese comments the belief that circumstances may be wittingly or unwittingly developed to bring at least one European power into the field in defence of its own interests in the Far East. No-one has pretended that the Chinese Government, in taking its decision to call a halt to the policy of acquiescence in Japanese encroachment, has received any promise of such a reinforcement of its efforts. Indeed available information seems to show that certain powers, notably Great Britain and. the United States of America, went out of their way to try and avert hostilities by diplomatic representations to both sides. The implicit burden of their arguments indicated a firm determination to leave the field clear if unfortunately those efforts failed, as they have failed. No Chinese spokesman has ever suggested any other belief but it is not unnatural that in the poignant realization of the travail through which their country is now going, General Chiang Kai-shek and his accomplished comrade-wife should point to what they consider to be the logical implications of the undertakings entered into by Western powers in "China's regard. That they can reali expect intervention must be doubted, for, if anything, the recently-declared policies of Washingion and London on the i made for maintaining the national interests in China directly disclaim any thought of opposing armed resistance to Japan. Madame herself, indeed, is too well-acquainted with the American "atmosphere not to know that her argument for intervention is rhetorical rather than. practical in the diplomatic sense.
This does not traverse the view which she takes of the breakdown of collective. security. That, indeed, is the world tragedy of the moment Every motion concerned has to mourn the deterioration in international morality. The answer to Madame Chiang Kai-shek cannot but be apologetic and self-accusatory. In September 1931, Japan's onslaught on Manchuria revealed the weakness of the joints in the armour of the League of Nations. It started a process of defiance which has reached its culminating point in the chaos in Europe to-day and in Japan's latest development of a militarist plan for bringing China to her knees, albeit, to quote Prince Konoye, with the intention of suppressing "anti-Japanese" sentiments in this country and encouraging. Sino-Japanese íriendship—save the mark! Responsibility for this failure cannot be laid at the door of any one nation. All, in greater or lesser degree, have contributed to it. They! will plead force of circumstances, considerations. of self-protection, defects in the machinery of the League, but the fact remains: the standards accepted in the Covenant have been forgotten or ignored and the world's plight to-day is the result. At this time when China is engaged in a homeric struggle against heavy odds it would be churlish to consider where and to what 7 extent she shares in the general responsibility. It is necessary, however, in the light of Madame Chiang Kai-sack's latest pronouncement, to endeavour to expound the present policy of western-nations and, in so doing to remove any impression, if such exists, that there is a probability of that policy being reconsidered or reversed. However sym-is pathetic the people of democracies like America, France and Great Britain may be as they watch the progress of China's gallant fight against Japan—and their sympathy, short of armed intervention, has taken practical and material form—the dominant note of their respective policies is to avoid an extension of the armed conflict. That informs their attitude toward no less serious breaches of international understanding nearer home, as events in Europe have shown. In the Abyssinian affair the system of collective security was stretched to the extreme point of entry upon a combined exercise of force. It stopped short on the threshold because it was seen that the system could not stand the strain and that, so far from promoting peace, the effort would precipitate a ' catastrophic conflagration against which that system had. been devised to operate.
Thus at the moment the western world is engaged on the delicate and precarious task of so safeguarding its individual nationalities that, in due course, the resumption of a better and stronger combination in pursuit of peace may be attempted. Free democracies have rearmed contrary to the declared aspirations of their eager exponents of international comradeship. They have had to admit the ineffectiveness of the peacemaker who cannot bring an iron fist to the council board, Underlying this determination is a strong aversion from war unless it proved inevitable in the maintenance of individual security. China, herself, by success sive withdrawals in the face of Japan's advance upon her soil, has endorsed the same policy. She now resists, first because she feels she has her back to the wall and secondly because she can command an unprecedented national unity in the process. It is easy to argue that western nations are merely staving off the evil day, that, sooner or later, they will experience the same pressure to abandon their reliance on negotiation and persuasion, but no government, depending, as a democratic government does, on the united support of its people, can remain in office and forestall the event however inevitable it may be. This takes a gloomy view of the world situation and perhaps not without, justification, Yet in essence it constitutes a prudent hopefulness which, if allowed to find fulfilment, may in the long run be beneficial even to war-harassed China. Deploring though they do her present policy of aggression, the British people are anxious maintain their friendship with Japan no less than with China. They feel that, in the event, this link with the better mind of Japan may prove to be of real assistance in solving China's difficulties. Such a desirable consummation could not be expected if Great Britain were to permit herself to be drawn into the prevailing strife. If that conflict on this western shore of the Pacific were allowed to degenerate into a world war neither China nor Japan would be a whit better off, whatever may be the outcome of their struggle. Engaged as they both are in a conflict which must prove wearisome and enervating, their eventual need for recovery will be far likelier to find prompt and effective attention if they can turn to a world which has preserved its equilibrium, however insecurely poised. Much logic and no little historical experience can be adduced to prove the uncertainty of this prospect. Practical considerations must nevertheless govern the statesmanship of the world such as it is; they will consistently resist resort to action which can be justified only by hypothetical assumptions. Democracies have to be faced by unassailable facts touching them closely and remorselessly before they can be moved to abandonment of their life-line—the preservation of peace. Forensic arguments of themselves do not carry full weight. This is no spirit of cowardice, for as Madame Chiang Kai-shek recognizes, the nationals of the western powers in China are facing no little danger at this hour—and facing it unafraid. It is in essence a courageous adherence to principles which have been sadly shaken by recent events in the firm belief that, in the end, the sublimity of self-sacrifice will assert its dominating influence over the forces of reaction and: bad faith.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.