Its Application To the Editor of the 'NORTH-CHINA Onny News"
Sm,—It may not be amiss to inquire into the present status of the Pact, in view of the Chinese insistence of its invocation and ascertain if China is really entitled to such a privilege.
It wil be' remembered that in Washington in 1922 a series of agreements were made. They are separate but are more or less inter-related and interdependent, Included among Others is a resolution to establish a Board of Reference, for Far Eastern questions, to which those "that may arise in connection with the execution of the provisions of Articles III and V of the Nine Power Treaty, may be referred." These articles relate to the so-called open door policy and equality of economic opportunities in China, China though. willing to accept the fruit is delinquent in fulfilling her obligations and Bas obstinately objected to this date to the creation of ihe Board on the ground that it would infringe on her sovereign right, The second delinquency on the part of China relates to a Resolution regarding the "Reduction of Chinese Military Forces." it expresses to China the earnest hope that immediate snd effective steps be taken by the Chinese Government to reduce her-milit-ery forces and expenditures, How-"ever, since then China has shown no disposition to reduce her armed forcës. On the contrary she maintains a vast airy or armies" of several millions, of whom Canton alone boasts 1,000,000.
Europe and America are concerned in the question largely from the economic point of view. Their primary interest in China is China as a potential customer. To Japan, just how matly troops there are on this side of the Yellow Sea and how they look upon' Japan and the' Japanese are the matters of vital importance.
The third violation by China of ithe Washington group of agreements relates to a conference agreed upon at Washington that Was'to have been held in Peiping with a view to increasing her customs revenue in order to enable China to meet her fiscal requirements and abolish likin (throughout this Republic. To that end the interested Powers met in conference in Peiping in 1925 and 1926. But on account of Feng Vu-hsing coup d'état and Li Chunglin uprising, the host delegates gradually disappeared One by one until the negotiations came to a standstill. However, China subsequently obtained her objective not at a conference ae was provided for in the Washington Convention but by unilateral threat and international cajolery. The nations were forced to acquiesce the fait accompli without any further ado, Fittthermore, as regards the oft repeated: open-door policy which constitutes one of the cardinal principles of the Nine Power Treaty, Japan for the last few years has been virtually excluded from the Chinese market a e country, Hen wi eli ili the economic the. Jai "outbid all others the Chinese would not grat them the announced and promised contract.
These points are more or less technical in character. But an all important political aspect of these agreements should not be forgotten. The Washington Five Power Treaty limiting naval armaments, the very foundation on and around which these agreements and resolutions were built, has since gone out of existence. Inasmuch as the sole aim of Bela the League of Nations and the Washington agreements is the maintenance of the status quo or rather enfcrcemënt of it by those who are satisfied with that status, they have failed to shift the gear with the changing con: ditions, of the time, In addition, it must be remembered, that a new continental force has appeared in the "direction of Urge." to borrow the language of the late Count Uchida, to modify the Far Eastern equilibrium. This new influence is "no respecter" oí the dearly guarded status quo. Indeed its appearance owes its origin to the fervent desire to undo the existing order of things. It found in China 1 an apt pupil in copying its revolutionary polities and diplomacy to he. advantage.
Nor should a student of int rnational relations, ignore the n of impatient and aggressive nationalism in China, "an aggressiveness in defence, it may be, but aggressiveness none the less." Of this Mr. Nathaniel Peffer, an eminent authority on Chinese, affairs uttered these prophetic words already in April last:
"It is difficult just now to say which China has to fear: Japan or China, the ambitions of the Japanese army or the state of mind of the Chinese people. "The latter, I am inclined to think. For it may succeed in bringing on a war that is not easy to prevent in any case put that could stil be prevented."
China since the Washington days has dispossessed Japan of Tsingtao, Britain of Weihaiwei; wrested away tariff autonomy from a dozen countries, driven Britain from Kiukiang and Hangkow by her newly acquired, method. She became conscious at her moral victory at Geneva in 1931-3. She heard the world applaud her for the valour of her soldiers in Shanghai in 1992. Her pride was mitch inflated when she quashed' the so-called independence movement: in Suiyuan last autumn.
The China of Washington Conlerence was a sick man, meek in the hands of international physicians and was supinely acquiescent, Bui the China of 1937 is intoxicated, with "recovered possessions rights and selt abstrance. Of the latter" says the same authority; "it recover&e too much" China of to-day assertive and provocative is not the China 'o the Washington Conference.
The Washingtoh agreements were the results of the Powers' indulgence; "to which Japan contributed most liberally. She is still prepared to be indulgent in order to usher into the Far Est an era of permanent peace. But she will seriously oppose any move that will foster, aid or éntourage China's anti-Japanism that will facilitate the penetration of the untried and questionable political and social theory into Japan to challenge the confided existence of Her tadition and culture of 2,500 years.
With these eloquent facts of non-fulfilment of the terms of the agreements and the change of the condition from' that of 1922 {ө the-one how obtaining, are we still to be. manceured by the nicety of diplomatic ge and courtesy to safegrarding the stable, from which the horse has already: run away and when Japan herself is charged with the crime of removing it?
Rightly or wrongly it has been Japan's avowed policy to free the Far East from that international machination, to which China traditionally has resorted. Japan considers the Geneva suggestion not so much as an expression of collective peace but as a method trying to control "one barbarian by a group of barbara ians," a system which Japan is determined to eradicate from this part of the world.
Japan has patiently waited to talk directly with China. That is the only course between the two neighbouring nations, which are bound to have constant and multitudinous problems arising out of their intimate contracts, It is not too late for some el the over zealous European nations to resign themselves to the fact that Geneva alone is not the source of wisdom nor of law.
The League will be greatly strengthened by taking such an attitude and its present difficulties will be greatly minimized thereby. Short of that, we are inclined to believe that the League will merely aggravate the Situation without fairly and legitimately showing to Japan the just cause for its intervention in a proper field in a proper manner.
K. G. MUR un.
Shangh:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.