Dragon v. Lion

The new and conquering Nationalist Government of South China continued last week the slow encirclement by its armies of the great international city of Shanghai.

The Nationalist Foreign Minister Eugene Chen, issued a proclamation: "A great and impressive fact must be grasped by all: the Chinese question now is not what Great Britain and other powers may wish to grant China to meet 'the legitimate aspirations of the Chinese'; but the question is what China may justly grant to Great Britain and the other powers."

As the Chinese Dragon thus breathed defiance to the world, the British Lion wavered almost ludicrously irresolute last week. The British War ministry was very, very busy conditioning the Lion's claws; but the British Foreign Office was even busier wagging the Lion's tail in a friendly, ingratiating fashion.

Sharp Claws. The British War Office announced that it would have 20,000 British troops in China by the end of February. Ten thousand picked infantrymen, including a battalion of the crack Coldstream Guards, embarked at London last week for China, and 450 Punjabis from British India were rushed from Hongkong to Shanghai.

News of these troop movements of course reached China by cable, and profoundly excited the Chinese. In North Chinn, now nominally friendly to the foreigner, the great War Lord Chang Tso-lin spoke through his son, Marshal Chang Hsueh-liang, in ominous fashion:

"The British are sending large forces to China. They seem to be aiming at China's throat. If foreigners attempt to strangle China they soon will find the north and south joining in a common assault upon the invaders. Brothers fight within their own home, but when attacked from, without they join forces."

Ingratiating Tail. When news of this threatening reaction in China to Britain's mobilization reached London, Foreign Secretary Sir Austen Chamberlain tried to calm the Chinese by issuing a most conciliatory statement. He said that Britain is now ready to change the whole status of foreigners in China as follows: 1) Remodeling of the system ("extraterritoriality") whereby foreign malefactors in China have been tried before consular courts of their own nation. Britain now proposes that suits brought by Britons in China shall be tried by the Chinese courts; and suits brought against Britons shall be tried under Chinese law in the British consular courts. 2) "As regards Chinese taxation," said Sir Austen, "we are prepared to make British subjects liable to pay the regular Chinese taxation not involving discrimination against British subjects or goods.

3) "As regards the British concession areas in China, we are prepared to enter into local arrangements according to particular circumstances at each port, either for the amalgamation of the administration with the adjacent areas under Chinese control, or for some other methods of handing over the administration to the Chinese while assuring to the British community some voice in municipal matters.

"In 1925 I said we would meet China half way. You will see that in this program we go much more than half way."

Unrecognized Governments. Sir Austen concluded: "For the moment there can be no new treaty, for a treaty can only be signed and ratified with a recognized Government, and owing to the conditions produced by the civil war we cannot at present recognize any Government in China as the Government of the whole country.

"In the Far East, at any rate, we are a 'nation of shopkeepers.' All we want is to keep our shops open and be on good terms with our customers."

The position of the U. S. with respect to China last week was set forth by President Coolidge and Secretary Kellogg (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS).