Evening Post FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1932. ASSESSING THE BLAME

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 30, 5 February 1932, Page 6

Evening Post FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1932. ASSESSING THE BLAME

The hopes doubtfully based yesterday on Japan's delay in replying to the proposals submitted by Britain and supported by the three other Powers chiefly concerned, and on the conciliatory -statement of her representative .on the v League of Nations Council,1 have been' disappointed. Japan's rejection of the proposals and the resumption of hostilities are reported to-day. On the first point her acceptance of three of the proposals naakes it ppssible to hope that some ■, f ace'-savirig - compromise may still be effected regarding the other two. ; But" iio compromise, no change on; Japan's part of heart or policy o^ ? both,; no combined efforts of Japan,and all the. other nations, could undo'the effects, of the carnage and devastation*'now proceeding amqng ( the 2,000,000 Chinese in Greater Shanghai, or ease the conscience of. an indignant and distressed but impotent rworldi^ • ,

Shanghai this .(yesterday) morning was. Wakened: ,by' the heaviest gunfire aince k the of hostilities, heavy artillery being naed by both sides, says to-day's report.' The battle is raging between' the Chinese. and Japanese in the Chape j and Hongketv areas. . .;. Japanese cruisers and destroyers opened an intensive bombardment on the Chapei arid Paoshan areas during the morning,,. shells;passing. over the easternand northern districts of the International Settlement and exploding in areas occupied by the Chinese. The shells set fire t6 toe remaining parts of Chapei which haa escaped the aerial bombardment.- A "conflagration is raging, over aitremendous area, and terrible devastation is proceeding. The Japanese 'intend,, to continue shelling until air the adjacent areas are unoccupied.

And while, in open defiance of the Covenant of the League of Nations arid, the Peace Pact, this terrible work is proceeding at "Shanghai between two'signatories of both documents, a; Japanese, delegate in the calmer atmosphere of Geneva is presumably ta!^ n£ #eace at the Disarmament Conference as gently as any of them. •Though the C rejection" of two °f Powers' proposals' necessarily ainpunts to a rejection of' them, all, the three which are accepted by Japan are of great importance, and might even be said to be of- greater immediate importance than the others. They read as follows:— ; (1) The cessation of all acts of violence on both sides.

(3) The -withdrawal of Chinese and Japanese combatants from all points in mutual contact at Shanghai. -. ■5 (4) Protection of the. International bettlementbjr the, establishment of neural zones policed by neutrals.

It is, obvious that these, proposals cover the urgent' necessities of the case, whereas the two prohibiting* further mobilisation or military prep^arations and prescribing the nature of the negotiations for a settlement are of more remote importance. Had nqt Japan been eager to press the advantage which her vastly superior military strength .gives hdr,' she might surely-:have cbuntered with'some proposal which would. • have established a neutralzone policedby the Powers as a buffer, while the ultimate procedure for a settlement was left open. .It is possibly alone thesellines that Sir John Simon, who may again be congratulated on the combination of firmhess arid patience m the further statement reported yesterday, may now be Vorking. But the difficulties of his.task have of course been indefinitely, aggravated by the renewal of hostilities on an unprecedented scale, and, as we have said, much of the mischief that it has already done is irreparable. : responsibility for the failure of the truce is one of those matters in whicheach side always blames the other and the truth is often very difficult to determine. /

The Chinese, says, the Japanese Premier, : without provocation. attacked marines in force after a definite assurance , for the future to : the Japanese at Shanghai. ■ , ■ ■

His statement would be easier to accept if it was not accompanied by others which are, palpably absurd, but on general grounds it is highly probable that he is right' on this point The advantages of discipline and self-restraint are entirely on the side of Japan. Except perhaps when it was despotically enforced, discipline has never been a strong point with the Chinese, and in this case they have an almost irresistible incen-

tive! to disorder in the ferocity of the^ hatred against, the Japanese which for./years has been their master passion, and after/beiog intensified by the seizure of Manchuria has reached

its limit with the invasion of their Homeland and the threat to their capital. IF under, such' conditions a poorly trained army may easily degenerate^intq a mob, it' must be remembered that these Chinese soldiers are surrounded by millions of civilian countrymen who are in.spired by the same ferocity and have doubtless supplied mobs by the hundred and snipers by the thousand. Whether the culprits'were soldiers or civilians or both, it is therefore

likely'that the renewal of hostilities was the wprk of the, Chinese, and there seems rio reason to assume any provocatioji on the part 9f tne Japanese beyond the general provocation which; they have so freely supplied during the last four or five months.

" But the strong .probability that Mr. Inukai is right in his contention that it was the Chinese who broke the truce does not justify his Government in the course that they have taken. On the contrary, it indicates that a secure truce is impossible under the conditions prevailing at

Shanghai when this truce was made, and that the only hope for an effective truce that will give peace a chance lies in the neutral zone which the Jour Powers suggested and offered to police. In the rejection of proposals which included that indispensable condition of peace the Japanese Government incurred a responsibility which no mistakes on the other side can remove or reduce; but, as we have said, the fact that this proposal was not specifically rejected suggests the hope that even now it may possibly provide a way out. Of the Japanese Premier's other points the first is the most interesting, '.'.' The Shanghai incident, he says, and the Manchurian affair are entirely separate matters. ' . This is news to the world, and seems to deprive Japan's present enterprise of the protection which, in the speech that was quoted yesterday, Sir John Simon extended to her action in Manchuria. ■... The difficulty did not begin, he said, ■by the troops of one country sailing across the, sea or marching across the frontiers of another country to invade it- '. ", **■' * If this did not happen in Manchuria it-seems to have happened in, the "entirely separate" affair of Shanghai. Or ; did the Japanese fleet-and army merely "happen along" ;to Shanghai on a peaceful, mission? and would'they have left in peace if a perverse^ misunderstanding of. their, purpose had not resulted in 'violent Chinese military attacks"? The American Senator's suggestion that there are some humorists in the Public Service- of Japan should not haye been' confined to ', the Foreign Office. . -~ - ;. ' ;.