Evening star., 1933-06-01
China Surrenders.

cluded yesterday accepts what the in
vader candidly describes as terms oi
peace dictated by military victors to q
vanquished foe. By those terms the
Japanese become indisputable masters
Of vast area in North China, imme-
diately adjacent to, though not actually
embracing, the key cities Of Tentsir
and Peiping. The Inundated and hum
bled Nationalist government at Nam
king contends that the Tangku truce
is merely designed to give a breathing
space to the sorely tired Chinese troops
and the distressed population of North
China, Is purely military in purport and
does not affect the nations territorial
rights or international position"
Be this as it may, Japan drove an In
dubitably harsh bargain with her help
less and baf1ed adversary, and the Rive
Terms" imposed upon him are destined
to rank with the notorious "Twenty-one
Demands" which the same conqueror
extorted from the Chinese some eighteen
years ago for the purpose of establish
ing Nippon's influence over Shantung
Province, in Manchuria and other parts
Of China vast suzerainty largely re-
linquished at the Washington Confer
ence In 1922 and to no inconsiderable
degree at American insistence.
Yesterdays terms" aim, from Japan s
immediate standpoint, at demilitarizing
North China throughout a zone 1870
miles wide, extending from Lutai, near
the coast northeast of Tientsin, north
westerly to Yenking, passing a point
ten miles beyond Peiping. The zone
between this line and the Great
Wall, stretch of some 275 miles, shall
be wholly evacuated by Chinese forces
except local police contingents in the
intervening towns, and the line north
Of Peiping shall be the northern limit
for Chinese armies.
Japan agrees on her part that when
assured the Chinese evacuation Of the
demilitarized zone is complete she will
ultimately withdraw her own forces to
the Great Wall, which the japanese
claim as the boundary Of their puppet
State OF Manchukuo. Within the
"neutraized" area in North China
Chinese police are required to preserve
peace and order and to facilitate jap
anese military reconnaissance, especially
by airpIane, to insure Chinese military
inactivity. II this is not strictly OBJ
served, the conqueror has already
threatened drastic" military reprisals.
What next in China battles prediction.
Markings debacle seems as complete as
it Is undoubtedly pitiable. General
Chang Kai-Shek's efforts to preserve q
.semblance of national unity or to Or
ganize anything savoring Of virile MILL
tary resistance to the Japanese foe have
proved as futile in the North China
affair as they turned out to be during
the year and half Of the Manchurian
tragedy. Extensive civil war appears
once more on the restless Chinese hori-
zon as China's next ordeal. From all
directions Chang Kai-Shek and his
hapless Kuomintang regime at Nan
king are threatened with grave opposi-
ton, military and political. At Kalgan,
in Chahar Province northwest of Peip-
ing, the so-called Christian" war lord
Gen Feng Yu-HSiang, Is ready with
100000 men to pounce upon whom and
what may strike him as the most lucra-
tive foe at the moment, Chinese or
Japanese. Even from the Cantonese
south, whence Marking China, by what
now looms as sad irony, originally de-
rived its momentum, is IN revolt against
the alleged pusillanimity of the Chang
Kai-Shek system of misgovernment
though it is difficult to follow Canton's
reasoning that the Nationalists failed to
offer a-sufficiently vigorous resistance tc
| Japan in Manchuria. How could they
China being the inchoate, disorganizeo
and faction-ridden mess that it ha;
| presented to the world for the past ter
| years? 1t Is a wonder that the mailed
fist of Japan has not been smashed ir
China's face long ago. Deserted by tht
Occidental powers, which the japanese
military opportunists for two years havt
found conveniently immersed in theil
economic woes, China has had no alter.
native but to stew in her own Juice
which the truce of Tangku now make.
more bitter and devastating than ever
Modern mankind has witnessed NJ
grimmer international tragedy than i
now enacted before its Indifferent gaz,
in far Cathay. That might is right ha!
had fresh and terrible exemplificatior
in civilization supposed to have ban
ished that principle for all time.