Evening star., 1928-12-31
Manchuria Comes In.

SdtIOLldl1Sb OIllI1d 6uU6TS the new
year richly endowed with success. On
December 20 Great Britain, following
the lead of the United States, signed
treaty with the Marking government,
which still further solidified the tariff
autonomy acquired by the new masters
of the republic. On December 20 the
Nationalists achieved a victory in the
purely domestic realm, comparable in
significance to, If not more portentouS
than, their international triumphs. The
vast northern province of Manchuria,
an area of 365,0o0 square miles, which
had stubbornly withheld allegiance to
the Marking regime, formally and def
initely accepted Nationalist authority.
Mukden, instead of remaining sui
len, semi-rebellious center of sepa-
ratism, now becomes the loyal outpost of
unified China. One flag, the banner
Of Kuomintang, flies north and south
Of the Great Wall. With the single ex-
ceptions of Mongolia and Tibet, which
the Nationalists have never seriously
included within their scheme, all the
provinces Of China henceforward will
comprise single sovereign entity.
Considering that year ago today
the forces of Chang Kai-Shek and
other rebel" leaders were still engaged
in sanguinary and uncertain combat for
Nationalist supremacy at Peking, the
homogeneous picture China presents to
the world at the dawn Of 1929 is moth
ing short Of miraculous accomplish
ment In nation building. It augurs
promisingly for the future.
The adherence of Manchuria to the
central government at Marking is Of
outstanding Importance because of what
preceded it. The present viceroy Of the
province, the so-called "young general" I"
Chang Hsueh-Liang, inherited power
early this year, when his father, the
notorious Manchurian bandit war lord,
Marshal Chang Tso-Lin, was killed in
mysterious accident to the train in
which he was fleeing from Peking to
safety beyond the Great Wall. Japan,
with its special interests" in Man
churia, did not contemplate with equa-
ninity the extension of Nationalist
Chinese power to Mukden.
Through her astute consul general in
Manchuria, Kyujiro Hayashi, Japan
forthwith proceeded to bring pressure
to bear upon Chang Hsueh-Liang to
resist Nationalist encroachment upon
Mukden's Sovereignty" especially in
the field of foreign affairs. The trans
parent purpose was to maintain unim-
paired the paramount influence the
japanese so long exercised In Man
churia under Chang Tso-Lin.
The contest between Nationalist
China and Japan for the upper hand
at Mukden has at length ended in a
victory for Nanking and an unmistaka-
BILE setback for Toxic. The agreement
under which Manchuria hoists the Ma
tionalist colors provides for continued
local autonomy for Mukden, including
the right to levy and retain all taxes.
But control Of foreign relations is
transferred to Marking. AS the Ma
| tionalists and the Japanese continue at
bitter loggerheads over tariff matters
and other Sino-Japanese questions, the
accession of Manchuria to the Marking
cause is an event of momentous signifi-
canoe.
| Japan has extensive and legitimate
commercial rights throughout Man.
churia, and maintains considerable
force of troops there to safeguard them
Nationalist China suspects the Japa-
nese of a determination to convert
those rights into political privileges
With Mukden and Marking now march.
ing shoulder to shoulder behind the
banner of a united China the enforce
ment of special pretensions in Man.
churia is bound to be an increasingly
difficult project for the Toxic govern.
ment. The outside world will do we'll Il
observe carefully the attempt to carry
it out. Nippon no longer looks acros!
the Yellow Sea to an impotent China
China claims to have discovered gun