News of the Week
FVENTS at Tsinanfu, the capital of Shantung, have caused the Japanese to take a step which all the Powers concerned in China have so far been able to avoid. They have occupied non-Treaty territory, and are in direct conflict with the Nationalist troops. No doubt the provocation offered to Japan was extreme, but the break- away from a common policy of " holding off " is a new fact in the situation. If Japan intends to occupy Shantung till she has received satisfaction for the outrages committed by the Nationalists her troops may stay there indefinitely, for obviously there is no single person among the Chinese who can speak with authority, no one who can give a pledge carrying any certainty that it would be honoured. Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the Nationalist soldiers, who were guilty of looting and murder among the Japanese civilians, would have to admit that his irre- sponsible forces are not more likely to obey orders in future than in the past. Their officers in vain ordered them to" cease their excesses. Wheir they -were. branglit- again under some restraint the mischief had been done.
