Nationalist Notes

P: President Gerardo Machado of Cuba extended formal de jure recognition, last week, to the new Chinese Nationalist (See p. 18) Government, to which the U. S. recently accorded semi-formal de facto recognition (TIME, Aug. 6).

P: Prime Minister Baron Tanaka of Japan denounced as "Outrageous!" last week, the recent Chinese Nationalist vote which declared abrogated the Sino-Japanese Commerce and Navigation Treaty of 1896. Baron Tanaka contended in a stiff note to the Nationalists that the Treaty cannot be abrogated except by mutual consent. Though the Japanese legal position is strong, Chinese consider it "outrageous" for Japan to demand the pound of flesh which is her due under this old treaty, originally signed with the Chinese Imperial Regime, which has been defunct for a decade and a half.

P: The effectiveness of Japan's coercive attitude toward the Chinese Nationalists was impaired when they received de facto U.S. recognition, three weeks ago, and was still further impaired last week when Britain's Government concluded with the Nationalists an amicable settlement of British damages suffered during the so-called "Nanking Outrage" (TIME, April 4, 1927).

P: A Nationalist protest was lodged with the Occidental consuls, at Shanghai last week, against British-fostered greyhound racing in that city. So popular have the races & betting become that they are denounced as "leading to the impoverishment of the common people of Shanghai for the benefit of foreigners."

P: Letting of contracts for the proposed $50,000,000 naval docks at Singapore, famed British Naval Base, was postponed, last week, by His Majesty's Government, without explanation. Cynics denounced the postponement as a hypocritical gesture designed to distract attention from Britain's extreme "preparedness," at a time when the Empire is about to sign the U.S. Treaty renouncing war.