The occurrences up and down the China coast last week have to be read in the light of a recent utterance by the Japanese spokesman in Shanghai on Friday, when he is reported to have said "it is not a matter of rights, but what Japan demands," from which itis to be assumed that the rights of third party neutrals are to be subordinated to whatever Japan considers to be her own particular needs in the circumstances. It was inevitable that that remark should attract very considerable attention abroad, and the contention, that Japan, without resorting to a declaration of war, is endeavouring to secure belligerent rights for herself, has much indeed to support it. There has to be one modification, however, and that is that she is not apparently claiming such rights against the United States, but only against Great Britain and France, for while the Ranpura, and the Aramis have been stopped, and boarded in order to discover their status,—as if that were not perfectly well known to every officer in the Japanese Navy,—the President Coolidge has not been interfered with. The endeavours which Japan is making not to antagonize the United States will deceive no one in Washington, for while overt acts may thus be missing, there is not the slightest doubt in the mind of the American Government that Japan's policies are just as much levelled against American interests as they are against those of the nations which Japan prefers for the moment openly to flout. Turning from the question of this attempted blockade of the China coast, for which there cannot be the vestige of legal justification,—the Japanese spokesman has indeed denied the necessity of endeavouring to find any,—the application of his remarks to what is happening with regard to the International Settlements of Kulangsu and Shanghai, together with the utterance of Mr. Yoshiaki Miura, Japanese Consul General in Shang-hal, on his recent return from Tokyo may not prove without significant interest.
Mr. Miura is reported as having said:
It is unreasonable not to listen to Japan when she is presenting her reasonable and legal demands in a reasonable and legal way.
And if the countries concerned adhere tojan such an attitude a dismal condition will be brought about in the International Settlement, causing great annoyance to the millions of inhabitants of the Settlement.
Viewed in the light of what is happening in Kulangsu this threat is of considerable importance. It might have been hoped that Mr. Miura has either been misreported or misunderstood, but, as his-remarks fall in so completely with those of the Japanese spokesman, they are to be taken as representing a considered jugment. In Kulangsu, following the rejection of the Japanese demands for what would amount to Japanese control of the International Settlement there, the Japanese on the pretext of preventing alleged anti-Japanese elements crossing from Amoy to the island, have in fact established what is practically a blockade. To a request that they should set aside a point at which foodstuffs from the mainland could be landed under Japanese supervision a prompt refusal was returned, with the addendum that the authorities of the settlement would be able to obtain adequate supplies from the mainland. As a result commodity prices on Kulangsu are soaring sky high. It may be perfectly true that the Settlement administration tan obtain supplies from the mainland, but it is eq¥ally true that the Japanese officials on the are applying annoyance tactics in the hope that these will make the other foreigners more amenable to their demands. The general scheme may be taken as an endeavour to force the Kulangsu Municipal Council to accept Japanese demands, in the hope that thereafter the Powers concerned in the preservation of the internationality of the settlement would bow in the presence of another of those fairs accomplish which the totalitarian states have found so effective in the past. The transformation of a partial blockade into a completely effective one might on Kulangsu bring about a dismal condition causing great annoyance to its thousands of inhabitants.
There can now, in the minds of no one, be any misunderstanding as to the actual position which has been reached. From the assurances given from the very commencement of the hostilities in China that the interests of foreign neutrals would be scrupulously respected, a series of easy transitions has brought about.a position in which that particular cloak has been openly abandoned, attacks are being made upon such separate hope to avoid the major consequent ces which must inevitably be entailed. Noninterference with American shipping will not permit of Japanese escape from the major issues which are being raised, nor will it in any way modify the fact that the threats to foreign neutral interests of which Japan has been, and still is guilty have brought about a community of purpose which may sooner or later, it is to be hoped sooner, find rather more expression than the mere lodging of protests and the acceptance of facile and, by now, completely unreliable assurances. The foreign Powers involved have it well within their means to make their opinions respected in Japan, and these should not continue to be neglected. Fortunately, for everybody concerned, there is a saner element in Japan with whom these considerations may even now prevail.
Menace of the Verbose:
There is something delightfully human about the protests which have been made in the House of Commons concerning the manner in which some of its members manage to corner all the time devoted to debate. Two members complained of the loquacity of certain well-known politicians which practically denied the right of free speech to the rest of the members. Thus during the Palestine debate while some one hundred of them would have liked to have spoken on the matter, only six private members were allowed to have their say. It is an undeniable fact that at present there are in the House of Commons men who like to hear the sound of their own voices, and having once caught the Speaker's eye proceed to take up the time of the assembly, holding forth at great length, and often to the boredom of their listeners. In recent years there appears to have sprung up some sort of belief that only those who have made their names as orators should be given the floor, and it very often occurs that. a member may have to wait a very long time before he is able to make his maiden speech, some indeed having waited for years. The Speaker apparently agreed with the protestants and spoke of the Palestine debate as a flagrant case of a few members monopolizing the time of the House. The real root of the trouble ems to be that some of the members think at if they speak long enough they get more publicity in the Press than if they confined themselves to a few short pithy sentences more impressive by their brevity than any lengthy declamation. If they knew their Press they would realize that it is very often the man who can summarize his arguments into a reasonably short address who gets the greatest attention, while those who indulge in long rodomontades very often defeat their own purposes. Incidentally some of the public speakers in Shanghai would do well to reflect upon the length of their speeches. Not a few tend to orate at considerable length, though the cleverer ones have long realized that brevity is really the soul of wit. Fortunately their hearers have generally been reduced to a state of somnolence by a preparatory repast, for otherwise objection might be frequent and loud.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.