"PROVOCATION MARCH"

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 62, 6 December 1937, Page 7

"PROVOCATION MARCH"

-Pmu A»*d •

Japanese in International Settlement MENACE TO HONGKONG

(By Telegruph

■•('opyrUht. •

(Eeceived 6, 8.45 a.m.) EUGBY, Dec. 4. According to Shanghai messages, appreciation of the work of the Settlement police during the Japanese victory march has been expressed by the Japanese authorities. Comments in the British Press on the incidents during the victory march are in a tone more of sorrow than of anger, and tributes are paid to the remarkable efficiency displayed by the Settlement police. The Daily Telegraph, in a leader, says: "Good luclc and the restraint of the inhabitants of the International Settlement prevented isolated episodes developing into a massacr:, but this merciful result owes no thanks to 'the Japanese parade, and it may be questioned whether perhaps the parade was not staged in the hope that the ineident would be bigger. "This was not a march of triumph across conquered .-rritory; it was a wholly unnecessary march of provocation. "It will be agreeably surprising if the dominance over Shanghai's administration by Japanese threats is not strengthened by the further grasp of power as a result of to-day's events. The extraterritorial rights of the Settlement are a poor safeguard against General . Catsui 's machine-guns. "The outspoken articles in the Japanese Press and the less open movement of bombers and troops in the Canton area suggest that Hongkong is a desirable acquisition in t'ie eyes of Japan's militarists. The local Japanese consul is already protesting abaiut anti- Japanese in Hongkong, but the infection, which the Japanese themselves disseminate so rapidly, will not be easilv cured."