Sept. 25.
To the steadily increasing number of provocations to Japan to depart from the role of friendly neighbour and adopt that of the punitive schoolmaster has been! added the murder of a Japanese the highest bidder. The names of the leaders of this organization are believed to be known, but they are not. men who stand to gain anything from the wanton killing of a man here and there. They ere the controllers of a nefarious labour and carry out the orders of whoever can meet their price. This theory may or may not be well-founded, but it is seriously entertained by the Chinese authorities, who claim that other murders be-
Party here were shot at by at presides those of Japanese have been planned in the Colony, notably the murder of Mr. Tang Vu-jen, and the attempted assassination of Mr. Wang Ching-wei, the former president of the Executive Yuan. To produce proof that would convince public prosecutor has been the difficulty of those who have favoured the theory and therefore tile has been done about it. There still remains the question of who are behind these men. And it is fairly] obvious, as has already been em= phasized in this journal, that they are men with an axe to grind at the expense of the National Government. Anything that would embarrass the Nanking Government] would suit their book: and what) can be more embarrassing than putting the Government into a position vis-d-vis a foreign Power' with which its relations are already strained, than throwing upon it an almost impossible buzuen of protecting the lives of the nationals of that Power in circumstances dictate ed by whim rather than by reason?
To the condolences of the chairman of the Shanghai Municipal Council over the death of First Class Seaman Taminato will be added those of the entire Shanghai community. The murder adds one more to the long string of unsolved problems which stand in the way of the much-advocated resumption of friendship between China and Japan, The deaths of two Japanese in Chengtu and anoticy Japans ese in Pakhoi, the victims of insensate mob violence, are still under investigation. The shooting of a Japanese police constable in Han~ kow in conditions which point to professional gangsterism is still unsettled. Two other murders of Japanese, that of H, Nakayama last November and K. Kayau in July, have reached the stage when suspects have been brought before the courts and charged. In the meantime there have been frictions of other natures between China and Japan—ineidents which have sometimes seemed so trivial that they have raised a smile and others which have taken on such serious Proportions that it seemed for a short while that force must be used to redeem national honour. The Japanese Government in Tokyo and the Chinese Government in Nanking are equally anxious to get the settlement of these incidents out of the way, so as to be able to tackle the larger issues which are standing in the path of rapprochement between the two nations. If, however, incidents recur which increase the number of settlements to be made before major problems are discussed, then there must result a postponement of the advantages both nations hope to enjoy by mutual economic cooperation, to ths detriment of all concerned and, incidentally, to the disappointment of other nations who have been hoping to share in the prosperity which Sino-Japanese ce-operation would undoubtedly bring about. There is therefore every motive for caution and {urning the other check in cases such as the present. No government in the world can be expected to take the murder of its citizens in another country lying down; but there are degrees of protest and insistence upon prevention which should not be disregarded. In this country in particular there are circumstances which should not be lightly dismissed in assessing responsibility and demanding satisfaction. When two nations any-Where in the world are called upon to play a tune together, is not moderato the best direction to be written on the score?
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.