May 5.
The forthright statement of the! Japonization of Inner Mongolia, as set out in this journal's Peiping correspondence yesterday, gives a shrewd hint to Chinese diplomacy. It illustrates the danger of relying! too confidently on time-honoured tactics in which delay, evasion and procrastination, although proper to Government in certain conditions, have serious implications. Japanese pressure in the North and in other parts of China has, it is true, been met by vigilant attention in Nanking. Nor has the Government of China failed to give proof of its willingness to facilitate Sino-Japanese accord, Indeed criticism has taken the apprehensive view that in the process too great a yielding: of Chinese interests has occurred, This criticism is largely the product of ignorance, but the mere fact that that ignorance exists emphasizes the need for close contact between the Government and public opinion. For want of concrete information there is a risk of encouragement being given to wild rumours of intended military action in defence of China's} interests, when realities show that any such projects are illusory to use the mildest term. Recent events clearly point to the further erosion of Chinese soil. Apart from the situation in the North, it is now reported that Kuangtung is anxious over "autonomous" portents Fukien, where already the Government's power of control has been' circumscribed. It has been urged that the Japanese Government should be invited to make specific suggestions regarding its policy. of Sino-Japanese ce-operation. There are grounds for the belief that the invitation has been tendered by responsible Chinese authority. On the basis of generalizations it is not possible for the Government of China either to secure intelligent support for its policy or to frame: a policy which can be trusted to terminate the present dangerous: fluidity. Whatever intrinsic Gim-culties stand in the way of consolidating relations between the Government at Nanking and: the regional authorities over which it
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.