When we went to press last month the undeclared war between China and Japan in the immediate vicinity of Shanghai was at its height. The Japanese forces had launched a big offensive and were meeting with a stubborn resistance from the Chinese. On the night of March 1 the Chinese troops began to withdraw from their positions. This was heralded by terrific fires throughout the Chapei area. On March 2 the 19th Route Army completely evacuated the whole of its positions and retired to a line some twelve miles to the west of Shanghai, leaving the Chapei area a mass of ruins. Woosung Forts fell to the Japanese on March 3. This left the whole area to the east of a line from Liu He on the Yangtze south past Kating and Nanziang to the Soochow Creek clear of Chinese soldiers; and there the position has remained till now. Although the commanders of both opposing forces gave orders to their troops to cease fire on March 6, desultory sniping and occasional skirmishes have taken place during the month.

That there could be such a situation as now exists round Shanghai is the direct result of fiddling and fuddling on the part of the statesmen and politicians of the more important countries of the West in the immediate past, that is to say, in the years that have followed the Great War. Much more is the destruction of Chapei to be laid at the doors of these muddlers with their weak and flabby policies than at the doors of the Chinese and Japanese. They sowed the wind: we have reaped the whirlwind.

A conference has been taking place at the British Consulate in Shanghai between representatives of the two contending parties, but up to the time of writing it has been utterly abortive. The members of the Commission of Inquiry sent out by the League of Nations have arrived in Shanghai and departed for the north by way of Nanking and Hankow. They tarried here for half a month while being dined and wined by various organizations, institutions and associations anxious to secure their good graces.

The Chinese banks in Shanghai have kept business paralysed for the last two months by refusing to open their doors, while shopkeepers have done themselves untold harm by adopting a similar policy. How this kind of thing could possibly hurt anybody more than themselves it is difficult to see.

If all this is not fiddling while Rome burns we should like to know what it is. Why do not those in the position to do so take hold of the situation and bring about a settlement of a dispute that if allowed to proceed much further may end up by shattering the peace of the whole world.

We have heard it stated that the various European Governments and that of the United States of America do not consider Shanghai and the Shanghai situation of any very great importance in world affairs. If this is so the sooner they change their opinions and concentrate their energies upon adjusting things properly here the better, for such an idea is most assuredly wrong. Shanghai is the fulcral point of the whole of the Far East; and what transpires here in the next few weeks or months must have the most far reaching effects throughout the rest of the Orient, if not throughout the whole world. If Shanghai goes under or becomes nothing more than a pawn in the politico-military game that is being played, as it bids fair to become the way things are drifting, then China herself must go completely to smash. And as China goes down she must inevitably draw Japan and Soviet Russia into the maelstrom, and with them. as our Western politicians must know, most of the rest of the great nations of the world.

Why do not such countries as Great Britain, America, Italy and France approach the contending parties with some sound scheme for the solution of the Shanghai embroglio, a scheme which will place this great and important city beyond the danger of such things as happened in February, instead of sending their delegates to talk useless platitudes. It is obvious that in the circumstances the contending parties must find it extremely difficult to arrive at a mutually satisfactory solution to the problem: they are altogether too resentful and suspicious of each other. Unless something is done and done quickly further hostilities seem inevitable, and what will happen if the Chinese and Japanese commence fighting again in this area it is impossible to foretell.

Surely it is time to stop fiddling and fuddling and instead to set about finding a sane and lasting solution of the Shanghai problem, a problem the solution of which will provide the key to the far greater problem of international relationships throughout the world?