No doubt Chang Tso-lin's police exceeded their permission. Indeed the
Legations seem to have protested that they did. But it is really preposterous for people here to make a fuss about any precautions that may be taken in China nowadays for self-defence. Experi- ences at Hankow, Kiukiang, Shanghai, Nanking and all over the Yangtze basin prove that murder and nameless indignities await those who fail to protect themselves. And has the Labour Party here forgotten that the Bolshevists who are so sensitive now about the fine shades of diplomatic usage were responsible for the raid on the British Embassy in September, 1918, when the British Naval Attaché was killed? The right of inter- vention was claimed—quite untruly, of course-- na the ground that the British Mission had been concerned in an attempt on Lenin's life.
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