The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. Wednesday, MAY 18, 1927. MORE LIGHT ON CHINA.

Hokitika Guardian, 18 May 1927, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. Wednesday, MAY 18, 1927. MORE LIGHT ON CHINA.

In the absence of news of importance from China the speech just delivered by the British Foreign Minister in the House of Commons helps to explain the most recent developments of the situation in the Far East. What.most people have been anxious to learn is whether the Powers intend to take any further steps to enforce their claims for reparation against the Nationalists for the Nanking outrages. The answer, as Sir A. Chamberlain would say, is in the negative. The replies received "From Mr Chen, the so-called Foreign Minister of the Cantonese Government, were wholly unsatisfactory, but within a week after this dispatch was received that Government had ceased to exist. As there is nobody in power who can he regarded as officially responsible for what happened at Nanking, our Foreign Office has decided that however justifiable it might be to enforce penalties for these outrages, it is not expedient to attempt it under existing circumstances. No doubt this decision will appear to many of our readers humiliating and futile. Are the Powers content to allow their nations to he robbed or outraged or murdered in China without attempting to secure punishment for the offenders? The answer given by Sir A. Chamberlain covers all . the most important aspects pf thp Mtoa-

lion. If there were a responsible Government in China, the Powers could easily bring pressure to hear upon to enforce some kind of punishment on the criminals. Blit as there is no such central authority, and as the “do facin’’ Government which was virtually responsible for the Nanking outrages exists no longer, any attempt by the Powers to exact reparation would mean a combined attack upon China. But the Powers certainly do not contemplate any net of war against China. On the contrary. Sir A. Chamberlain is careful to remind us, the Powers in general, and Britain in particular, are most anxious t-o conciliate the Chinese and to assist- them in finding their way through the bewildering maze of the civil war. But if and when a Chinese Government acknowledged by the whole countries does finally emerge from the chaos, then the Powers will present their claims to it. and will he prepared to exact compensation and reparation. The larger portion of the .Minister's speech deals with the division in the. Kuoininlnng party between the Communists and the moderate section of the Nationalists. The “Beds” who directed affairs from Hankow. and were primarily responsible for the Nanking outrages, have been practically wiped out, and “the Communist agitators have boon punished by the Chinese Nationalists themselves with a severity and effectiveness of which no foreign Power is capable.'’ Sir A. Chamberlain points out, however, that tins split in the Nationalist ranks vendors the future of China even more ambiguous than lie Tore.