Evening star., 1937-09-12
War
CONTINUED From First Page J

upon all foreign nations as her vas
sails. 1t was out of the question for
her to deal on equal terms with
Great Britain or France or America.
Her ruler, Son of Heaven itself,
swayed the whole terrestrial world
from a celestial dias. If foreign
ships called at her ports they were
there to pay tribute to her. Such
was the Chinese conception.
And so China's idea in setting up
foreign settlement was to keep the
foreign devils" cooped up in as
small an area as the celestial ruler
deigned to grant them. The aliens.
barbarous and unclean, were not to
mingle with the civilized celestials
and to deflle by their presence the
sacred land of the Son of Heaven.
"Oasis in Chinese Desert"
Such was the origin of the settle
ment. In due course the foreigners.
by dint of their assiduity and per-
severance and their advanced knowl-
edge of science and engineering. con-
verted the settlement into a flower
ing oasis in the bleak Chinese desert.
Then the civilized" Chinese opened
their eyes in wonderment and began
to seek admittance into the "un-
clean" quarters of the foreign "bar-
barians;;' but the settlement slammed
It's doors in the face of the Chinese.
Soon came the TAPPING Rebellion
IN the middle of the last century.
devastating the country for hundreds
OF miles to the south and west of
Shanghai. Thousands upon thou-
sands of natives, plundered and made
homeless, knocked at the gates of
the settlement, for that was the only
haven of refuge for them. The set
tlement out of sheer compassion
opened the gates. When the civil
war came to an end it was impossible
to eject the refugees. Thus was the
former policy of exclusion reversed by
the settlement. Today there are al
most a million Chinese living in the
settlement. They are there. not nv
virtue of any treaty, but by sufferance
but their numerical superiority is
such that the settlement had. Villv-
nllly, TO extend its prerogatives 10
them. These Chinese, while publicly
denouncing the settlement for politi-
cal expediency, privately pray for its
continued existence. for nowhere else
could they enjoy the safety and COM
Tort afforded in the foreign area.
When, IN 1882, the japanese de-
feated the Chinese Nineteenth Route
Army at Shanghai and obliged the
Markings military authorities to ac-
quiesce in an agreement establish
Ing a demilitarized zone extending
Tor some Is miles to the north. South
and west of the International Settle
ment and the French Concession
many of the foreigners and Chinese
IN tnose foreign areas secretly ap-
plauded the japanese. though they
dared not do so in public. Obvi-
ousiy IL was to the advantage of the
settlement that the Chinese military
forces should be kept as far awav
from 1t as possible. The demilitarized
zone agreement, though concluded be-
tween Chinese and Japanese military
representatives, was witnessed and
approved by the civilian representa-
tiVes of the British. French. Ameri-
can and Italian governments. Now
the dimlitarized zone is gone. for
CHINA has poured troops into it in
the teeth of the japanese protests
made to avert the present hostilities
at Shanghai. Gone with it, too, NAV
be the settlement itself. The next
few years will tell.