Jan. 3.
Quite " sensation has been created by the appeal by hie. Wang Ching-wei, Chairman atthe Central Political Council, io General-fSsime Chiang Kai-shek asking him to accent me Japanese peace. terms "as "announ Prince. Konnoye, which he issued. Hongkong. on December 30, shortly after his arrival there, following his Might from the interior. The appeal is capable of three Interpretations. Ether it is a peace feeler put out by Mr, Wang with the foreknowledge One consent of Chiang Kai-shek, or itis an pression of views held by a section of the "Kuomintang, for which Me." Wang. Sting as mouthpiece, or itis an expression of his own views designed for the. purpose {iselt In view of the facts it is Ineonceiv= testing out peace sentiments in Chima
able that. the Generalissimo gave any sup port to what Mr. Wang Ching-wel had in his fund." Indeed. the fact that the Chinese Government. denounced "beforehand res ponsibility for any statement Mr. Wang Might issue, suggests that they were aware of his intentions and took the very earliest opportunity to forestall him with an anticipatory denial. There is, of course, the possibility that Wang Ching-wei was voicing the opinion of a certain section of the Kuomintang. It has been realized for some time past that there were clements in the Party not wholly comfortable over the fruits of the Gencralissimo's policy, but there is no evidence to show that th quiet has yet assumed the proportions necessary to justify support for a statement, which in the face of Chiang Kai-shek's own declarations amounts to clear and overt opposition to them. The third alternative that Mr, Wang is merely testing out peace sentiments in China itself is in the cireum= stances the most likely, and if as a result hho sooner or later ceases by expulsion to be a member of the Party a very definite answer will be given to his appeal, and.to any ideas that there is amongst the ranks of the Chinese Government any very real desire for peace on Japanese terms.
Reports indicate that Chinese circles in Hongkong are bitterly attacking Mr. Wang Ching-wei for, publishing his appeal. Chiang Kal-shek's circular instructions issued to all commanders under him on December 31, contain no indication that his view of the situation has in any way weakened from that which he has consistently held, for he asks for an increase in the morale of the Chinese troops, the fostering of the most amicable relations between the army and the local populace, and the rendering of every assistance possible to wounded soldiers and refugees. If those instructions mean anything at all, they mean that he is even now disposed to continue his resistance against Japanese aggression, and that the terms offered in Prince Konnoye's statement have fallen upon completely dear ears. Based on the Japanese statement of revised aims in China, Mr, Wang's appeal has about it all the sweet, music of an apparently sound logic. On close examination, however, this does not appear to be the case, for, if his arguments are accepted as the proper interpretation of the Japanese requirements, what is demanded, and what he Proposes should be granted amount to little more than the abject surrender that the Japanese Government has all along required. In their ultimate interpretation the Tatest Japanese demands, while they do not appear to call for an indemnity, ask for what is tantamount to relinquishment of China' sovereignty,—for the proposed occupation of certain points in China by Japanese garrisons, can mean nothing else—and the general acceptance of Japanese ideology ai represented by the anti-Comintern Pact, together with the absorption of China into the tripartite economic bloc, consisting of Japan, Manchoukuo and China. The proposed surrender of extraterritoriality and of the foreign concessions in China are but mere sop. compared with what China is still being asked to give up, and to counsel, with Mr. Wang Ching-wei, the acceptance of such terms is to advise the complete abandonment of Chinese resistance to aggression, which, no matter how the immediate military results may appear, cannot yet be justified.
The Kuomintang have it in their power to give him the most emphatic refusal, to expel him from membership of the party. That might not prove much of a blow tou politician whose career has been marked with @ quality of opportunism which in the clrctimstances cannot be entirely overlooked, ut it would certainly lend emphasis to the anticipatory denial of whatever Mr. Wang might say which has already been issued from Chungking. This may be said for Mr. Wang that he apparently trusts in the good faith of the Japanese in this respect. That the latter desire peace goes without saying. The possibility of these hostilities dragging along for months and even years to come, cannot commend itself to those who fully realize the situation, but whether Japan is entirely sincere in the latest proposal of terms is something of which proof is still required. How far was Prince Konnoye testing out the market cannot at the present moment be ascertained. That is something which only time will teil. Mr. Wang Ching-wei has all along been suspected of being in favour of peace, and of leaning towards Japan, as a man desirous of following a middle policy. Yet it must be apparent to him as to anyone else that the latest Japanese terms are very lite different from those which were suggested after the fall of Nanking. Under them China would be deprived of that sovereignty which Prince Konnoye promises to it. It would in its place have nothing more nor less than that degree of sovereignty and integrity which present the lot of Manchoukuo, a country under Japanese military, political and economic domination. To accept such a state affairs in conditions such as prevail at the present moment would indicate that the Chinese government is completely bankrupt of morale, and would mean the acceptance of doctrine of defeatism which up to the present Chiang Kai-shek and those who Support him have shown no signs of being willing to accept.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.