Considerably more prominence was given to affairs in the Far East, following Mr. Neville Chamberlain's speech during the debate in the House of Commons on the subject of Great Britain's foreign policy, by the debate which followed in the House of Lords. In the course of a most interesting discussion Lord Halifax added point to the remarks of the Prime Minister, and succeeded in dotting the i's and crossing the t's to some good effect. The attention of the whole of the British legislature has now been drawn to conditions prevailing in China as a result of the Sino-Japanese hostilities, and there can be no ground for believing that either House is now ill-apprised of the regrettable state of affairs which has arisen during, the past twelve months. There is a certain naivete on the part of a local contemporary which does not believe that Japan does seek to destroy British interests in China, indicating a Peter Pan-ish refusal to look the facts fairly and squarely in the face, perhaps from the conviction that it is merely the over-enthusiasm with which Japan seeks to protect the interests of third party neutrals which is responsible for the undeniable harm which is being wrought on all except Japanese interests. The tale of the damage which has already been wrought is sufficiently* large to require firm action. The schemes of Japanese businessmen operating under the aegis of the Japanese military command in China are undoubtedly directed towards the elimination of foreign competition with themselves, and the uprooting of rights and interests which have taken generations to build up. The petty discriminations against British shipping up and down the coast where the Japanese are in control, and more particularly in Tsingtao is a notorious scandal. The complete and utter neglect of foreign interests as represented in the proper conservancy of the Whangpoo River, the manipulations in north China to control exports in Japanese favour at their very sources, efforts undeniably assisted by the Japanese military, and the discrimination which is being shown against foreign neutrals in favour of Japanese undertakings in Shanghai permit of the existence of no mistaken idea as to what has been happening, and there is every justification for asserting that there has been in operation for some months past a definite programme designed to deal a death blow to foreign interests in this country.
"The Times" modifies its criticism of the prevailing state of affairs by contending that the Tokyo Government has only a precarious control over the Japanese commanders in China, and that the discipline of the Japanese forces on the mainland is not of a sufficiently high standard "as invariably to overcome the ultra-nationalistic prejudices inflamed by anti-British propaganda." Prior to the latest reshuffle of the Japanese cabinet it would be possible to go the whole distance with "The Times" in its above contention, and the further one that for some time past it has been clear that damage inflicted on British interests in China has been only partially due to the consequences of the hostilities. The fact now is that, whereas the civilian element in earlier Cabinets was large, military men hold all the key positions, and, if what is practically a military Cabinet is unable to control the policies of its commanders in the field, what sort of organization can ever be expected to? But for the purposes of international negotiation it really does not matter who is actually guilty of what is going on in China so detrimental to foreign interests. The only question which arises is as to who is responsible, and that responsibility rests fairly and squarely upon the shoulders of the Tokyo Government It, and it alone, is responsible for the acts of its agents in China, and if the latter are following policies calculated to embarrass it, that is no concern of thg victims of their rapacious deeds. Those unfortunate sufferers ments to secure whatever redress may be available, and it is suggested that in the case of Great Britain she is by no means powerless to bring such pressure to bear upon Japan as will secure the future safeguarding of the rights of her nationals, and reparation for the carefully planned damage which has already been wrought.
Information quite frequently reaches this office, not only of discrimination against British traders in North China, but of subterranean attempts to cut off their sources of export supplies. In some instances these attempts have succeeded, in others, at least for the time being, they have failed; but the conclusion to be drawn from all the information available is that there is a carefully concerted scheme to eliminate all foreign competition in both the import and export fields. The reason is clear. In the former Japan obviously requires an exclusive market for the sale of her exports. In the latter the removal of competition will enable her to purchase Chinese produce at her own figure, and thus, while considerable hardship will be inflicted upon the foreign exporter, the Chinese producer is in danger of being reduced to an economic helotry the ultimate results of which must be disastrous. Despite all this it is still possible to believe that when the various spokesmen of the Japanese Government promised that foreign neutral rights would be respected, they believed what they were saying. That under the protection of the military in China things are being done contrary to those assurances is, unfortunately, only too patent, and the time has come when it is necessary that Japan shall assume the task of bringing actions into congruity with assurances. Not only that, there are outstanding against the Japanese substantial claims which ought to be negotiated and met, and now it has been made clear where Great Britain stands in the matter, an opportunity is being given Japan to demonstrate the genuineness of her promises. At the, moment the facts are all against the Japanese, It is readily admitted that this need not necessarily be the fault of the statesmen in Tokyo, and may be entirely contrary to their expressed intentions, but the fact remains that an increasingly.imposing case is being made out against them by the actions of their own people, and common justice requires not only that these practices should stop, but that adequate compensation should be paid to those who have been made to suffer by what can be proved to be exclusively Japanese action.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.