The initiation of the admirable scheme whereby an international committee is supervising the concentration. of refugees in corner of Nantao coincides with the development of a further complication of the Settlement's refugee problem. During the last few days streams of homeless and panic-stricken men, women and children have poured across the Whangpoo to the Bund in terror of the consequences imagined to accrue from the withdrawal of the Chinese divisions from Pootung. The evacuating troops have left behind no police force but plain clothes gunmen whose activities in looting cannot be checked in the absence of authority. They also constitute another danger for in clearing that area the Japanese forces may find it difficult to avoid measures which will involve the civilian inhabitants in exposure to fresh horrors. Yet in adding to the already swollen refugee population in the Settlement these unfortunate victims of warfare ai to undergo hardships not much I those which they would invite by remaining in their villages. The same consideration applies to the refugees now fleeing in ever-increasing numbers from the regions west of Hungjao. It seems that both the Chinese and Japanese authorities should—by the intermediary of some neutral help perhaps—consider the possibility of mitigating this additional burden of woe, especially as it can in no way minister to the military requirements of either side. The Chinese Government cannot benefit from the accentuation of distress among its civilian population, The Japanese will not serve their strategic plans by remaining indifferent to the possibility of lessening the tale of devastation and slaughter among non-combat ants. Actually, of course, Japanese occupation of Pootung does not demand anything more than the re-establishment of some form of law and order, such as apparently obtained when the Chinese troops were there installed for defence purposes.
The present interregnum which has taken the form of an anarchy from which the unfortunate inhabitants are fleeing should be brought to an end so that at the earliest possible moment they can be persuaded to remain in their villages or, if they have left them, to return under conditions which will ensure their safety so long as they avoid hostile activities. This would not incur charges of lack of patriotism, for no sane observer would expect civilians to perform a task which for good and sufficient reasons of strategy the armed forces of the country have temporarily abandoned, The Chinese Government, all along, has recognized that the resistance on which it has embarked will involve a series of retirements. The Japanese have declared that their quarrel is not with the people of the country, Neither side therefore can be accused of inconsistency if there is an agreement to comply with humanitarian principles by sparing the civilians of areas where hostilities no longer are in train from the necessity of undergoing further suffering. Certainly the Chinese Army which has endeavoured to establish a reputation for discipline and restraint cannot desire to have it on record that it deliberately blocked protection of its countrymen from looting and murder. It is regrettable that, in the mania for destruction, so much apparently unnecessary damage has been done to Chinese and foreign property by the retreating forces. That makes it all the more necessary that the responsible Chinese authorities should at once issue stern orders on that point and, moreover, indicate their readiness to facilitate measures for discouraging the evacuation from the areas now abandoned by their troops.
The fortune of war has now put a large area round Shanghai under the military control of the Japanese. It is incumbent on the Chinese authorities to consider how far they can differentiate between legitimate guerrilla warfare and the less reputable operations of plain-clothes gunmen. They should not be under any doubt on the issues involved.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.