JAPAN AT SHANGHAI.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 177, 13 August 1937, Page 4

JAPAN AT SHANGHAI.

The ^ituation that is developing at Shanghai can scarcely , but excite much dseper and more intimate outside concerh in "Sino-Japanese differences than even the active arrned hostiiities that have been going on further north around the old .Chinese capital of Peldngj now knawn as Peiping. Japanese pressure in the northern area merely touehes the interests of other countries in a more or less general way. At Shanghai, however, the position is very different, for, besides being China's greatest commercial port, it is a city of very heterogeneous population. It is said that of Shanghai' s 3-J-million people little less than half are either foreigners or dependent for their living upon employment provided by foreign-owned industrial and commercial concerns. This part of the population is pretty well concentrated in what is known as the International or Foreign Settlement, occupying pretty well the whole northern half of the city. This settlement 'enjoys a very considerable measure of municipal self-government. Another large section of the city, to the South of the International Settlement, constitutes the French Settlement, where also special concessions of very long standing are still in force. Thus the city consisfs of practicaliy three divisions and it is the smallest of them in area that is inhabited by the purely " Chinese section of the population. It is impossible to say, even to guess approximately, at the amount of foreign capital invested in Shanghai but it has probably to be counted by hundreds of millions. It is within the bounds of the International Settlement, too, that the main in- ' dustrial and commercial activities are carried on, with> a vast congregation of shipplng that hails from all parts'of the world, to carry away the rrch products of practicaliy the whole Yangtze-Kiang valley, stretching for a thousand miles and more intp the heart of China's immense area. It can be readily understood, therefore, that the threatening attitude Japan has adopted at Shanghai will greatly quicken international interest in bringing about some deunite understanding with regard to Japan's encroachments upon Chinese territory. No doubt every effort will be made to confine international interference to diplomatic protests, but it may well be that, should these fail of speedy effect, then some more impressive concerted demonstration of a forceable character may be undertaken. It is very evident that Japan's aggressvie movements against China are not going to be very easily curbed, and every success she is allowed to score can, of course, only encourage to further inroads, To start with, we may fully expect that Great Britain and the United States, at any rate, will have some very strong representaltions to make, but what may follow on them it is not easy to predict. Japan has so far shown herself as entirely indifferent to the international pledges to which she has been . party— and it may be conceded to her that the actions of some , • of the western nations have provided her with fair warrant for this. When Japan subscribed to the Nine-Power Treaty at Washington in 1922, she undertook with the other signatories to respect China's territorial integrity. But she took small cotmt of this when she set about detacbing Manchuria from the repubhc. The pretext then was that the secession was a spontaneous movement on the part of the inhabitants and that she was justified in supporting it because there was really no effective Gcvernment in China capable of dcing them Justice. On one pretence and another she has since continued her pressure southward, until now she is in virtual military occupation of. Peiping.. Now she threatens Shanghai on the very flimsy pretext of the alleged murder of a Japanese officer , an incident quite capable of explanation and diplomatic adjustment were it not that she is in such a bellicose mood. Much as has been the case with Germany and Italy she is evidently relying a good deal on the anxiety shown by other great Powers to avoid pre- • cipitating anything that might develop into another Great War. Meanwhile she no doubt feels- that, as yet at any rate, she can challenge Chinese resistance with something like impunity, though perhaps she may be noting the fact that Russia is summoning her man-power reserves to the colours.