To the Editor of the "Norri-Cuina Day News"
Sm—Five weeks of fighting in the Shanghai area has brought no decisive result. The Japanese forces have succeeded in driving back the Chinese troops on the north of the Settlement to prepared lines bit the Chinese right flank remains based on Chapel and the Railway Station and further efforts are necessary before they can be dislodged from that vantage point and a further retreat to more distant points enforced.
Tu the meantime damage to neutral and non-combatant life and property due principally to air-raids and antiaircraft activity is daily mounting in scale, thus reducing the prospects of rehabilitation in any near future period of time to a minimum, What then does either side hope to gain by further prolongation of hostilities in this particular district?
If either side can decisively defeat the other before the largest centre of international trade and commerce in the Far East is reduced to ashes then something might be said for continuing warfare, but as matters stand this does not seem to be probable, while the Foreign Powers, who see the lives and property and the trade and commerce of their nationals jeopardised in a quarrel which does not directly concern them, cannot forever eomtinue to adopt the policy of benevolent onlookers, but must eventually unite in some common action to preserve what still remains, Is there not then some immediate means, of putting a stop to military E and securing peaceowith honour by negotiation, either directly or by friendly mediation of neutrals?
The Japanese have vindicated their undoubted right to take all necessary measures to protect the lives and property of their nationals, threatened by the Chinese menace, while the Chinese, who see their country threatened with disintegration and partition or at best liable to sink under Japanese domination, have shown that they can put up a most gallant fight against the invader. But at what a cost!
In order to achieve success the Japanese have had to evacuate a peaceful trading population of some thirty thousand souls whose individual losses have been catastrophic; while valuable industries and factories built up by years' of patient effort and involving immense capital investment have been destroyed and in some cases may never be rebuilt. Similarly the Chinese have seen a whole population driven from their homes, industries slestroyed and tens of thousands of their fellow nationals driven to poverty and starvation. All to what end?
Are militarism and military conquest to be the sole aims of the contending parties? Are not individual humans to be allowed to live in peace and security without being constantly subjected to war's alarms. Are soldiers and sailors to be the sole arbiters of human happiness? If this is so then let all human progress cease, let art and science, invention and research go, let war and rapine take the place of a civilization which has failed, until in the process of time mankind will have committed mass suicide and the world hitherto dominated by man revert to its original state of chaos.
Peace must come some day, why not now? Not a dictated peace leaving a conqueror in precarious occupation of a hostile country and the conquered dissatisfied and unfriendly awaiting only the opportunity for revenge. There can be no lasting peace between nations in such a relationship. No, there must be peace with honour with a settlement of outstanding accounts in which there will be give and take on both sides.
The Japanese have many genuine grievances which must be remedied and guarantees must be forthcoming against any recrudescence of the insidious attacks upon her vital and commercial interests. Anti-Japanese propaganda must cease in' all its aspects. Her position as a great motion with a magnificent Tecord of achievement must be frankly recognized. There must be a cessation of the pin-pricking policy adopted of recent years by a China misled by subversive propaganda intended to estrange her from her nearest neighbour and obvious friend.
Japan must, on the other hand be [prepared to renounce all idea of conquest and the creation of à continental empire, if such were indeed her intent, and to hold out the hand of comradeship and friendship to a motion only now beginning to awake from the lethargy of centuries and take her place among the progressive countries of the modern world. Tu a word, let China renounce all leanings towards Communism and Japan all imperialistic aims at her expense. Substitute an alliance for war, community of aims for separatism. Let the statesmen on both sides put aside their prejudices and eet round the Council table, let merchants and manufacturers get together and decide the lines upon which a satisfactory basis of mutual understanding and respect can best be built up.
The first requisite is an immediate armistice for some definite period of time. Neutrals could be useful in arranging this if necessary. During the armistice period delegates, pre-tenably neither naval nor military, though these would necessarily be in the background watching the negotiations, should be nominated to discuss terms of peace and endeavour to bring about the permanent cessation of hostilities.
The presence in close proximity to one another of opposing forces ready at any moment to take advantage of incidents however trivial in themselves as an excuse to engage in hostilities must be provided against. There is only one practice way in Which this can be done, namely by the creation of a neutral zone of considerable extent within which Shanghai will continue to exist and to expand naturally with the growth of her trade, industry and population.
The Chinese should agree to create and maintain under international Treaty this neutral zone for a definite period of years and a small international force should be maintained for a short preliminary period es a guarantee of neutrality. This force could be withdrawn at some convenient date by mutual consent and the maintenance of peace and order then entrusted to a force of police and/or gendarmerie under control of an international Council.
The legal basis of such a neutral or special zone should be a Mandate òr Franchise from the Chinese Government creating such zone and if considered desirable making 4t or some part of it into a free port.
It might be desirable or even preferable in such case that the headquarters of all Chinese Government organs, many of which are situated in the existing foreign settlement area, should be removed to the capital as it would be incongruous for such organs to function in a place removed, however temporarily, from direct Government control.
If it could be arranged that the suggestion for such a scheme could be made to emanate from the Chinese Government itself without prejudice to her sovereign rights or eventual recovery of full control at the expiry of the Franchise, then there could be no question of loss of face or yielding to force majeure and her dignity as a Sovereign State would be unimpaired.
The first move for the necessary preliminary armistice could come with a good grace from the British and American Admirals on the spot who would make simultaneous proposals to both sides.
BRITISH PEACEMAKER.
Shanghai, Sept. 20.
^**To this eloquent plea the leading article on page 4 is germane.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.