Bitter Tea

The tea of the Chinese was turning bitter last week. When Britain and the U.S. said they would give up extraterritorial rights in China (TIME, Oct. 19), democratic hopes leaped up throughout the world. The Chinese, who had just given Wendell Willkie one of the warmest receptions in Oriental history, cheered themselves hoarse.

The Western press scarcely noticed that presently big, bland Richard Kidston Law, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, rose in the House of Commons to say that Britain's intentions did not include surrendering Hong Kong.

The Chinese noticed it. The question of Hong Kong was not one of extraterritoriality, which concerns the legal rights of foreigners in Chinese territory; the great seaport was legally owned by the British and possessed pro tem by the Japanese. But the Chinese could scarcely help regarding Hong Kong as Chinese, whether it was in charge of British or Japs. And the Chinese had taken hope that foreign sovereignty as well as foreign privileges were about to disappear from China.

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