March 3.
One of the interesting features of the special telephonic message, which the "North= China Daily News" received from its corres pondent in Tokyo on Tuesday, was the fact hat while in Shanghai the conversations, which were proceeding between the Shanghai Municipal Council and the Japanese authorities regarding the campaign of terrorism, were shrouded in a wholly inexplicable mystery, the facts were generally known in Tokyo. Indeed the correspondent expressed some surprise that such a request for in~ formation should have come from Shanghai considering the complete absence of secrecy over the "matter which "was apparent Tokyo. It is readily admitted that there are times when some degree of reticence is necessary in the conduct of negotiations be= tween important bodies, and the point can be conceded that even at certain stages dur-{ng these conversations the public. interests wore best served by adopting a similar line of procedure. But if the earlier forecasts of the contents of the first Japanese message to the Shanghai Municipal Council, which a peared in Japanese papers, were correct the situation was of such seriousness that those ultimately most closely concerned in the out= come should not have been left in ignorance of what were the potentialities of the situa~ tion, If they were incorrect, and at any rate there seems to have been some considerable difference between the first Japanese Note and the second,—though this is admitted to purely a matter of inference,—it would surely have been the wisest course to have issued some statement calculated to relieve the very widespread anxiety which was felt in Shanghai, On the other hand if there were some. agreement to maintain secrecy Shanghai between the two parties to. the negotiations it is somewhat dim ult to under= stand why that same arrangement was not made to apply also in Japan, for it has now been proved that local newspapers foliod in their endeavours to inform the local public of what is going on, may by application to sources elsewhere obtain that very informa ion which it is sought to suppress in Shanghai.
These reticences seem to be establishing precedents for all sorts of additional secrecies, Thus itis announced by the Nanking Govern-iment that in view of the situation prevailing a "silent war" has been declared upon the International Settlement of Shanghai, the French Concession and British and French shipping as being extensions of the foreign areas involved, while in Tientsin to the virtual cutting off of the British and French Concessions from the rest of the city suggests just the same sort of procedure, without, perhaps, quite the same degree of silence and secrecy. Exactly what a "silent war" is has yet to be seen. "If it merely means that the Nanking Government is not to be on speaking terms with the administrations of the foreign areas, it may be pointed out that this state of affairs in the absence of the recognition of the governments established in Nanking and [Peiping by any Power atallnot excluding Sapan already exists, While Japan, however, has not up to the present recognized either of these governments, the complete dominance which it exercises over both of them probably relieves them of the necessity of performing that formality, If "silent wat" means that the Nanking Government contemplates taking reprisals within the foreign areas against. the terrorists who have boon operating both within and without them, then it may rest assured that the authorities responsible for the maintenance of peace and order within both areas will deal with both warring parties with just the same degree of impartiality as hat with which they have acted in the past. So far as the shipping of Great Britain, and France is concerned in these waters, "silent may mean a continuance and even tightening of the discrimination which has been shown against vessels of both nationalities ever since the commencement of hostilities, and to seek to avail themselves of the present stale of affairs marder to justify Dractices which have prevailed ever since the Japanese secured control of the North China Ports is to produce an ex post facto excuse which can carry no conviction and is actually erisory in its application, It will be time enough for the Nanking Government to" talk of war, silent or otherwise when it is in possession of that sovereignty which can. be recognized, and it may rest assured that much, time will Have to elapse before that can come about, What with silent and undeclared wars, secrecies which are only partial and all the rest of the quaint nomenclature which the China Incident has called into being,—"in
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.