So much death and destruction has been inflicted upon this unhappy country during the past five months that the slaughter of three, patient, old Chinese countrywoman in the Hungjao area seems but a mere drop in the ocean of misery with which China has been inundated. So much horror has been perpetrated that the death and injury meted out by a drunken Japanese soldier upon some of the few Chinese who stayed outside the foreign areas or have ventured to return to the forsaken country adds but little to the sum total of grief and dismay which is felt. That is a sadly cynical way of looking at the matter which may commend itself to some, but the story published in yesterday's issue has graver and more serious implications. When the Chinese forces had retreated from the environs of Shanghai, there was a general desire on the part of foreign and Chinese residents to return to their homes, the first to enjoy the delights of their country properties, the latter to get back to their work from which they wrest so frugal a living. They were fobbed off with one excuse or another for a very long time, and, though slow adjustments have been made, even now there has not been that wholesale return which was hoped for. The Japanese themselves have been anxious to secure the return of the Chinese to certain districts, and it was believed, with the full re-settlement of foreign residents with their servants in the country west of Shanghai and the re-establishment of confidence, might be expected to go back to the land elsewhere with greater speed. This tragic affair on Thursday last has undone the slow work of weeks and has unnecessarily postponed the restoration of the Hungjao countryside and other areas to that operative condition which is so imperative in the interests of the future food supplies of Shanghai.
A young Japanese soldier, inflamed with arrogance, drunkenness and lust, has brutally murdered three inoffensive, old, Chinese women, injured a number of others and spread terror throughout the neighbourhood. He has done something more which is of the gravest concern to the Japanese authorities themselves. By his conduct he has cast a grave blot upon the reputation of the Japanese and has committed the grievous offence of insulting the very uniform he wears, and it must be remembered that there is, in other instances a very tender regard for its sacredness and honour. Let there be no mistake about it: that man is a standing reproach to his military service to his country. These are strong words, but they are written in full realization of all that they mean. This was not one of the many deplorable cases which marked the entry into and occupation of Nanking. There, at least, it can be said that those guilty of outrage in that city entered it while the blood lust was upon them, and men in that condition are difficult to restrain, as every commander in military history has reason to know only too well Here, months after the heat of battle has passed away, murder—that is what it is—and mayhem have been committed upon the very people whose confidence the Japanese authorities are so desirous of gaining. It will be argued that such occurrences as these are bound to happen in the circumstances prevailing at the moment. To a very large extent that is true, but the behaviour of the Japanese forces in Hongkew itself, right under the very eyes of authority, is not entirely free from criticism, and if that is the case how can it be expected that, distant from control as this young soldier was on Thursday afternoon, his cone duct should be any better? That it was infinitely worse is all the more to be regretted.
Unfortunately the finality of death precludes any possibility of the wrongs of these three women being redressed. There is reason to believe that until well into Saturday afternoon some at least of the Japanese authorities were unaware of what had occurred. But it should not, even now, be impossible to discover the soldier guilty of this grievous outrage. It is believed that the Japanese command, composed as it is of honourable men, will do its best to discover the perpetrator of this offence and bring him to punishment. For two reasons this is desirable. The honour of one of the proudest military castes in the world is me volved, and it is imperative from its own point of view that its discipline should be Nor is it likely that foreign residents will go back to their houses beyond the railway while the danger of a repetition of such a crime still exists. The surroundings of Shanghai cannot be left desolate wastes indefinitely. Their early rehabilitation is as necessary for Japanese policy as it is for the welfare of this city, one in which the Japanese have as much stake as practi-
void it, will wish Bank Yet no nor subject his what was anticipated LA expert observers in the Japanese capital. The expressed intention to sever all relations with the Chinese government and to ce-operate with a new regime to be established in China presents no new $18 development in tha situation, for as this journal pointed out on Saturday it was un-8) thinkable that the Japanese should refuse recognition or ce-operation with a new Chinese government of its own creation, The text of the declaration as carried by Domei presents nothing new and in fact has all the appearances of having been drafted for home tion entirely, and seeks to lay the blame for the indescribable misery of large sections of the Chinese population on the Nationalist Government as the result of their failure to recognize the Japanese Government's "true motives" and the making of "reckless plans for a continued resistance."
Government has therefore committed itself to an extension of its activities in China, and ihe long drawn out war which Chiang Kaishek has consistently predicted is about to become an established fact. The opinion has been expressed in Tokyo that Japan is able to continue protracted warfare for a very long to come and without doubt it is better equipped for the purpose than is China. That it will be doing itself considerable harm cannot, however, be gain said. Foreign Powers will note the assurance that there has been no change in the Japanese policy of respecting the territorial sea gate, and sovereignty of China and the rights and interests of the Powers as again emphasized by the decliration. If none of these things are r any more scrupulously than they have been in the case of Manchoukuo, and there is every indication that such will be the case, the fact that the declaration will not tend to allay anxiety on this matter need cause mo surprise.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.