Mob Crisis

One kind of Chinaman shivered at Peking last week as thermometers read 10DEG below zero; but 1,200 miles southward, in Canton, quite another sort of Chinaman was as warm as a Miami mermaid. The two kinds of Chinamen could by no possibility have understood each other in Chinese, so different are their dialects. But the Yang-kuei tze ("Foreign Devil") has taught a few Chinese of every region English, especially the word "Nationalism."

In sober truth that word and a few others fired the huge unarmed mob which forced the British to evacuate their $60,000,000 concession at Hankow (TIME, Jan. 17). Last week the world waited to see if the Chinese, a medley of tribes, had learned the white man's lessons well enough to stand together and force him from his $1,000,000,000 concessions at Shanghai.

Heavy Swords. For months troops of the New Nationalist Government of South China have been slowly pressing their campaign toward Shanghai, which has been defended by the potent Marshal Sun Chuan-feng. Sun knows that all this while trained spies and agitators have crept in advance of the Nationalist army into Shanghai by twos and threes. Their propaganda, mostly in English, has taken good effect. Last week all transport workers of Shanghai and the employes of several mills went on strike--prepared to revolt and join the Nationalist army when it should draw nearer.

Sun, roused perhaps too late, sent pompous officials about the streets armed with heavy swords. Criers announced that they would cut off the head of any one found making subversive speeches; but, when they passed, the purr of English and Chinese began again.

At last hotheads stormed the barricaded International Settlement, but in such small numbers that the international police quelled them with a little jostling. The first wavelet had broken harmlessly, but all the sea of China welled behind.

American Stake. How great is the stake of the U. S. in China? Citizens: 12,000. Invested busines capital: $69,300,000. Missionary and philanthropic property: $75,000,000. Trade: one-fourth of all China's imports, and one-seventh of her exports.

At Shanghai, chief U. S. sphere, are 4,000 U. S. citizens; half of them businessmen and professional people. Last week, though Marshall Sun seemed doing his best to defend the Yang-kuei tze, he raised the customs duties at Shanghai, and the "Foreign Devil" had to pay the surcharge.

American Defenses. What forces, military, naval, are ready to defend U. S. citizens in China?

Army: Two battalions (900 men) of the 15th Infantry, commanded by Brigadier General Joseph Compson Castner, are detailed at Tientsin to keep open the Peking-Tientsin railway.

Navy: Fifty-five ships of the Asiatic fleet, none larger than a cruiser, are commanded by Admiral C. S. Williams from his flagship, the armored cruiser Pittsburgh, at Shanghai. The destroyers Peary, Edsall and McCormick with the gunboats Sacramento and Asheville were also at Shanghai last week. At Hankow were the Isabel, Palos, Pigeon, Villalobos, Pope and Truxtun, under the immediate command of Rear Admiral Henri Hughes Hough. One warship each was standing by at Ichang, Chungking, Kiukiang, Nanking, Foochow, Canton, Wuhu, Bias Bay and Chinkiang. Ten destroyers and twelve submarines were ready at Manila, whence the destroyer Stewart sailed last week with extra arms and ammunition for the infantry men at Tientsin. During the week the destroyer Pillsbury took off some 60 U. S. refugees, mob jostled, from Foochow, landed them at Manila.

Marines attached to the Asiatic fleet swell U. S. manpower under arms in China to 8,000.

Out of Hand. A long coded radio from Vice Admiral Charles S. Williams to U. S. Secretary of State Kellogg caused that statesman abruptly to change his mind as follows: He had instructed John Van Antwerp MacMurray, U. S. Minister at Peking, to hasten to Washington, hoping to delay action in the China crisis while he was in transit. Mr. MacMurray had duly set sail but when he reached Seoul, Korea last week, he was ordered back to Peking, went.

The Secretary then informed reporters that he could tell them nothing more because it took so long to decode Admiral Williams' messages that before one could be decoded another arrived. One report, when finally decoded, was found so terrifying that Mr. Kellogg withheld it from the public to avoid undue alarm.

Clearly the Coolidge Adminstration and the Baldwin Cabinet knew, last week, that John Chinaman is at last completely out of hand. The U. S. was further burdened with responsibility when it was noted that, Admiral Williams outranks all other officers of the foreign armada patroling Chinese waters -- "the greatest armada assembled since the World War." Mobs, large or small, menaced the foreigner in almost every Chinese city. Belgium, in despair, announced that she would turn over the Belgian concessions at Tientsin without pretense of a struggle should the North Chinese War Lord Chang Tso-lin so demand. At Foochow and elsewhere mobs were incited against the Yang-kuei tze by the old story: "The Foreign Devil kills Chinese babies and cuts them up."