On the censorship question Lord Plymouth's reply was equally "unsatisfactory.—What right, Lord Elibank had asked, have the Japanese to see foreign messages sent from or to Shanghai en clair, and why was their claim not resisted at the outset Lord Plymouth's reply that the Gov-cinment admitted such " right wher could be justified on grounds of military necessity and the main tenance of order and good government" suggests an amazing ignorance stenard for Japanese psychology. That phrase right easily be stretched to cover the blocking of any cable.
Lord Plymouth's complacent self congratulations on preserving the integrity of the Customs were effectively exposed by Lord Manton—"what Is the good of saying that: the ority of the Customs still exists if the money is taken by the Japanese and not handed over for the purpose for which it is intended?" And if, tone "may add, in North China the tari' ig manipulated to favour panese "goods and against foreign goods, and if, as related in to-day "Times," masses of Japanese stu flowing into Shanghai apparently duty free.
Lord Strabolgi's "long view" of Japanese aggression cannot be read! without uncomfortable misgivings. His contention that if we had acted strongly in 1831, the present awful crisis would not have arisen, is, as Lord Plymouth said, a matter of argument, but in that argument most people would agree with Lord Strabolgi, And one has a very strai feeling that he was right in saying that, at this juncture in the Far East, public opinion is ahead of the Government and is more ripe than that of the Government." If so, it would bbe by Ho means for the frst time.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.