"War!"

Nobody must suppose, correspondents were told by Secretary of State Henry Lewis Stimson, that President Hoover was taking sides when he sent the following cable last week:

"His Excellency, Chiang Chung-cheng.* "President of the National Government of the Republic of China, Nanking.

"I extend to you and your fellow-countrymen my sincere felicitations on this [20th] anniversary of the proclamation of the Republic of China.

HERBERT HOOVER"

Matter of fact, Statesman Stimson was so upset about China & Japan and whether they were resorting to war as an instrument of national policy or just fighting, that he did not go out to lunch. Beaming Negroes brought steaming trays. Without leaving his desk, the Secretary munched with his advisers, including U. S. Ambassador to Japan William Cameron Forbes, in Washington on vacation. Alarmingly the New York Herald Tribune, chief Administration newsorgan, reported: "The situation in Manchuria holds the major attention of the State Department. . . . Open warfare between China and Japan would present a more delicate international problem for this country than the World War. Ultimate involving of the United States to some degree would be difficult to avoid."

"I cannot give out what I have done or what we are now doing," said Statesman Stimson later, "but the State Department is working hard."

Said an unnamed official of the Japanese Government in Tokyo, quoted by Hearst Correspondent James Young: "The world is unable to bend Japan's head to China. Such attempts will have serious consequences."

"Nanking is Incapable." Count Yasuya Uchida, president of the Japanese-owned & policed South Manchuria Railway which is the steel core of all the trouble, told correspondents last week with brutal candor exactly what Japan's military leaders in Manchuria have done and propose to do.

"I do not think," purred His Excellency, "that Chang Hsueh-liang [the Chinese governor of Manchuria ousted by Japanese troops] will return to Mukden."

"And," continued Count Uchida, making his big point, "since the Chinese Government at Nanking is incapable of negotiating a settlement, Japan must negotiate with the new Manchurian administrations when they are soundly established."

Some reasons why Count Uchida thought that Marshal Chang will not return from Peiping (where he lay sick) to Mukden.

P: Japanese armored trains ripped up in 26 places railway lines connecting Peiping with Manchuria.

P: Japanese bombing planes let go with terrific moral & material effect on the barracks of Chinese soldiers at Chinchow, the base to which these remnants of Marshal Chang's Manchurian Army had retreated from Mukden.

P: Japanese scout planes for the first time flew south of Manchuria into China proper, soared near Peiping and Tientsin where Japan keeps a puppet "Chinese Emperor".

P: Japanese destroyers and river gunboats appeared in all Chinese parts of any consequence, both coastal and interior (see map). Two hundred Japanese Marines were landed to join those already "protecting" the Japanese quarter of Shanghai.

"Until Chinese Explode?" In Tokyo last week Japanese officials kept on saying that the Sublime Emperor, the Cabinet and War Minister Minami had not ordered the shooting and bombing which General Honjo and his Japanese troops continued to perpetrate in Manchuria "on their own responsibility."

This pretense grew too thin even for the London Times, traditionally friendly to Japan. "Granted that the Japanese troops in Mukden exceeded instructions," rumbled London's old Thunderer, "are they to continue to exceed them without any effective check from Tokyo until the Chinese surrender or explode?"

To keep his people from exploding, Chinese President Chiang Kai-shek labored day & night, and with success. No Japanese subject was lynched last week anywhere in territory controlled by the Nanking Government. In the International Settlement of Shanghai (which has its own police) one Japanese riding in a ricksha was knocked out of it by Chinese mobsters who later knocked in the fronts of two Chinese tobacco shops selling Japanese cigarets.

Three times Chinese mobs were dispersed in the International Settlement before they could do more than stick up anti-Japanese posters. Correspondents reported that Japanese Marines behaved in the Settlement with "swaggering arrogance."

"Premeditated, Unprovoked, Ruth-less." In four notes (not one of which was answered) the Chinese Government besought the Japanese Government last week to announce when Japanese troops will be withdrawn from Manchuria. Tokyo branded these Chinese notes "ultimatums." Japanese Foreign Minister Baron Shidehara filled the diplomatic welkin with notes and explanations repeating his familiar points: 1) Japan again demanded that the Chinese Government (although cut off by Japanese bombing from Manchuria) should put an instant stop to anti-Japanese propaganda in Manchuria and to boycotting by Chinese of Japanese goods in Manchuria and elsewhere in China; 2) the Baron repeated (TIME, Oct. 12) that Japanese troops were only "protecting" Japanese lives and property.

Reaching Moscow from Peiping and Mukden over the Trans-Siberian Railway last week, Upton Close, modern Oriental historian, told the New York Times correspondent : "Foreigners in Mukden agree that the Japanese attack [TIME, Sept. 28 ct seq.] was premeditated, unprovoked and carried out with extreme ruthlessness for the purpose of striking terror among Chinese forces everywhere. . . . The Japanese intend to colonize Manchuria and

Inner Mongolia by means of puppet governments of servile Chinese. . . . Mukden was almost a dead city when I left. The Japanese had closed the banks and Northwestern University, and huge numbers of the Chinese population had fled."

In the Premises. "The Japanese have put themselves in the wrong," summed up the London Times last week. Could and would anyone right this wrong? Statesman Stimson and President Hoover passed the job on to the Council of the League of Nations. In a note to League Secretary Sir Eric Drummond, Statesman Stimson hailed the League's "permanent and already tested machinery for handling such issues." He declared: "It is most desirable that the League in no way relax its vigilance and in no way fail to assert all the pressure and authority within its competence towards regulating the action of China and Japan in the premises."

Sir Eric had already caused the League Council Chamber to be aired and dusted. Statesman Briand and other Councilmen hurried to Geneva, prepared to talk about regulating armed men in the premises of Manchuria 10.000 mi. away.

To the Last Degree. Fearful lest the League Council again dodge the China-Japanese issue as they did fortnight ago, Chinese President Chiang Kai-shek called his Cabinet Ministers to a solemn meeting at which prayers were said, then fervently exclaimed:

"I hereby declare that the National Government's patience has been tested to the last degree! China respects the League Covenant and the Kellogg Pact, but if the League and Kellogg signatories fail to fulfill their solemnly undertaken obligations China will not hesitate to make the supreme sacrifice--bankrupt the country for half a century and go to war to uphold the sanctity of international agreements and safeguard the peace of the world."

*The "ceremonial name" of President Chiang Kai-shek meaning "Centre of Righteousness."

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