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they held up his car as he was leaving the Hotel. He advised them to settle the matter with the local authorities and the district Kuomintang, and to conduct their agitation "in an orderly manner.' The agitators thereupon visited the district Kuomintang office, and presented a series of preposterous demands, including the surrender by the newspaper of the balance of its Japanese paper, the dismissal of the Police official responsible for the arrest of the two pickets, the release of these pickets, and guarantees of future immunity. Further demonstrations were arranged for to-day, if these demands were not complied with.
The occurrence of this agitation while the Chief Executive of the Nanking Government is in Peking ought once and for all to bring to a head the question whether a lawless organization, which preys upon inno- cent and lawabiding merchants and their property is to continue its activities wihout being called to account. The Mayor of Peking, when he paid his humiliating visit to the offices of the Boycott Committee is reported to have denounced its illegal actions, and to have stated that he would have dissolved it long ago had it not been "a popular organization." As a matter of fact none of the organizations which have sprung into existence under the Kuomintang regime have been more unpopular than these Boycott Committees. They are composed. for the most part of avaricious agitators, and schoolboys, They are money-making concerns. pure and simple, and their ill-gotten gains are derived from outrageous acts of lawlessness which would not be tolerated for an instant in any country in which the rule of law prevailed. For its own purposes the Government has connived at the pretence that they are patriotic organizations, seeking to promote the wel- fare of the people. Everyone, however, knows that the people's welfare is the last object that they have in view. It is the people's, especially the merchants, money that they want, and they have been allowed to pursue their lawless conduct so long that they are now ready operly to defy the Government, when their actions are proscribed. A spurious patriotism, which prospers upon blackmail, robbery, and violence, is a disgrace to any country.
The Peking authorities have shown characteristic weakness in referring the Boycott Committee to the Municipal offices and the local Kuomintang, instead of arresting them forthwith, and charging them with theft and blackmail. It would only require one successful prosecution of this kind to bring about the dissolu- tion of these lawless associations in Peking and Chihli, and the merchants and the general public would heave a sigh of relief at being rid of these pests. At the moment, emboldened by the inactivity of the Authori- ties, the Boycott organizations in Peking and Tientsin are doing their utmost to revive the anti-Japanese agitation. Chinese merchants in this port have been notified that after a certain date the sale of Japanese goods will be "illegal", and there has even been talk of a "blockade" of the Japanese Concession. How the Japanese Government can maintain relations, much less negotiate for Treaty revision, with Chinese Government which tolerates lawlessness of this kind, it is difficult to see. If Nanking wants a revision, or even a discussion. of the Treaties, it should be sharply reminded of the obligations of a civilized Government. General Chiang Kai-shek has an opportunity, now that matters have come to a head during his stay in Peking of proving that Kuomintang rule does not mean a right to unbridled lawlessness on the part of those who profess to act in the name, and with the authority, of the Party.
SCRAPS OF PAPER
[Reprinted from the Peking & Tientsin Times of July 6, 1929.)
A
If we return to-day to the case of the forcible seizure of a consignment of Japanese paper, consigned to the Min Yen Pao, it is not because we desire to exaggerate the importance of the barefaced robbery of a comparatively small cargo of newsprint, but because we intend to show that what has occurred at Pekang, under the very nose of the President of the National Government, strikes at the very root of China's pretensions, administrative, judicial, and diplomatic. We propose to deal with the issues raised under these headings, taking the diplomatic aspect first.
a
It may be recalled that the Notes embodying the settlement of the Tsinan question contained stipulation on the Japanese side that the Chinese Government guarantee on their sole responsibility, the safety of the lives and property of the Japanese subjects resident in China after the withdrawal of the Japanese troops from Shantung." The Chinese Government accepted this stipulation, recognizing its respon- sibility in accordance with international law" to "afford protection to foreign nationals in China, and that they consider it incumbent on them to extend such protection to resident Japanese in future."
It is not stretching the meaning of this undertaking to insist that it applies not only to the actual protection of the persons of Japanese and of property actually in their possession, but also to the Chinese Government's responsibility "in accordance with international law" to permit the free circulation in Chinese territory of articles of Japan- ese manufacture which have paid the stipulated import duties. That was the Japanese, and as we shall show later, the Chinese understanding of the agreement. No-one in his senses can suppose that the Japanese Min- ister would have signed the Tsinan Notes had there been appended thereto a reservation to the effect that goods of Japanese origin or manufacture would be liable to seizure immediately they left the Japanese importers' hands. The mere collection of import duty is official recognition of the right of the Japanese to dispose, as and where they will, of the cargoes on which it has been paid. And the use of the word "protection" becomes meaningless if the value of Japanese property is destroyed by the inability of the importers to deliver their goods to bonafide and lawabiding purchasers. The Min Yen Pao incident, then is a gross violation of a solemn international obligation, and raises in an acute form, the question whether the National Govern- ment is able or willing to fulfil the responsibilities it assumes as a result of negotiations with Foreign States.
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From the administrative point of view the failure of the National Government is equally glaring. Short- ly after the signature of the Tsinan agreement orders were issued by the Central Kuomintang Headquarters to the effect that all anti-Japanese movements throughout the Country were immediately to be terminated, and all existing anti-Japanese organizations were thenceforward to devote their attention to the development of national industry, instead of enforcing an anti-Japanese boycott. The Peking and Tientsin boycott organiza- tions, we believe, in common with those in Mid-China, charged their name to that of "Committee for Acceler- ating the Abolition of the Unequal Treaties." But they absolutely refused to relax their anti-Japanese activities, which were, in fact, intensified to an extent which has brought about collisions between the members of the Boycott Committee, and the merchants organizations, in various parts of this province. The merchants not unnaturally resented continued interference with their trade after the Government's order that the boycott should cease.
And they have protested, repeatedly, but ineffectively, against the confiscation or taxation of their cargo by organizations which were never strictly legal, and have now been formally banned by the National Government. Yet in Peking, while General Chiang Kai-shek has actually been in residence there, the local boycott Commitee has not only openly defied the authorities, but won the day. It rejected the request of the proprietor, the military and the police authorities, and the mayor, for the release of a consignment of Japanese paper which had been illegally seized at the Chienmen Station; and after the Joint Military and Police Office sent troops to remove the cargo and deliver it to its lawful owner, the local Committee had the audacity to raid the Min Yen Poo offices, armed with clubs and iron bars, and remove most of the cargo to its headquarters. Two of the ringleaders in this act of robbery with violence were arrested by the Police. They have since been released with profuse apologies, and are now being treated as heroes by the local Kuomintang. It is evident, therefore, that the orders of the Government are of no effect in Peking, and that they can be treated with complete contempt by any gang of hooligans that poses
patriotic organization."
as a
But it is perhaps from the judicial point of view that the incident is most serious. Attempts are being made by the Nanking Government to bring about the immediate and unconditional abolition of extraterritori- ality. Dr. Wang Chung-hui, the Minister of Justice, is at present abroad conducting a propaganda campaign with this object in view. He has already been giving interviewers glowing pictures of the modernization of China's judicial codes, Courts and prisons, and attacking extraterritoriality as an obsolete system 'not in keeping with the dignity of New China." Is it in keeping with that "dignity that criminals arrested in the very act of committing a felony-to wit, robbery with violence-should never even be brought to trial, but, on the threat of hostile demonstrations by their accomplices, should be released with profound apologies by the Director of the Military and Police Department, and humbly, persuaded to accept their freedom? The incident is such a travesty of justice that the facts would be read with incredulity in any law abiding country in Europe or America. Imagine, if it is possible, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Lord Byng, pleading with a couple of armed burglars to leave Vine Street Police Station, after they had been anested in flagranti delicto, breaking into the office of the Morning Post, and carrying off bales of newsprint for which it had paid. Imagine a demonstration of the "London Burglars' Union" outside No. 10 Downing Street while the Prime Minister was in residence, to demand the release of their colleagues and the sur- render by the Morning Post of a quantity of paper to which they had no legal or moral claim. Imagine the Headquarters of the British Labour Party in London welcoming as heroes a couple of hooligans who had been caught breaking into private premises and removing private property, and could offer no justification except that they had done the same thing, without being punished, before. The administration of justice becomes farcial when lawbreakers become heroes, and the officials responsible for the maintenance of law and order, and the administration of justice, apologize even for arresting them. No international undertakings that the Chinese Government may offer, no administrative order that it may issue, and no Courts it may establish, can be of the slightest use when such things can happen. Treaties, laws, and judicial regulations simply become worthless scraps of paper. And what remains?
"Perpetual emptiness! Unceasing change!
No single volume paramount, no code,
No master spirit, no determined road; But equally a want of books and men!''
PEKING OFFICIAL'S STATEMENT.
[Reprinted from the North China Standard of July 6, 1929.]
Mr. Li Yu, director of the Joint Military and Police Office, for whose dismissal and punishment the anti-Japanese Boycott Association has been agitating, has issued a statement setting forth his side of the controversy with the Association arising from the seizure of 57 bundles of Japanese paper by the professional agitators. After characterizing the Association as an illegal organization and giving a summary of the cir- cumstances leading up to the arrest of two pickets of the association on the morning of July 2nd, Mr. Li goes
ou to say:
It should be noted that the paper was bought in Tientsin by the Garrison Headquarters here and in- tended for the use of the Publicity Department of the Garrison. When it was shipped from Tientsin the authorities there had examined it and issued a Huchao for its safe transportation. But when the shipment arrived at Chienmen station it was seized by the anti-Japanese Association as "enemy goods."
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Page
Pa
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Acting on orders from our superiors, we repeatedly negotiated with the Association for its release, but its officers simply ignored us.
It should be further noted that this paper was bought after the Nanking National Government had formally ordered the dissolution of all anti-Japanese Associations in the country. The argument that we have violated the anti-Japanese movement therefore does not apply. What is more, the shipment was intended for the use of the Propaganda Department and not destined to any newspaper. The Min Yen Pao has a job printing department and has a contract from the Garrison Headquarters to print all its propaganda literature and posters.
It has become a long practice for the Garrison to store its paper supply with the paper. What justification does the Association have for its repeated attacks and raids on the offices of the Min Yen Pao?
It is a matter of record that the local authorities have received repeated orders from Nanking to close the Boycott Association and suppress the anti-Japanese movement. All the anti-Japanese slogans and posters which once filled the walls of the city have been removed by the authorities. Yet the Association con- tinues to function in defiance of the orders of the Government and is carrying on the blackmailing and ex- tortion game without fear. We are in duty bound to suppress its activities.
It is for intelligent public opinion to say whether the Association has the right to confiscate a ship- ment of paper bought after the official cancellation of the anti-Japanese boycott. We hereby set forth all the circumstances of the case and appeal for the impartial consideration of all the wise and virtuous men in the country.
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[Note: The Boycott Committee has since been permitted to "seal up" half the cargo of paper in the offices of the Min Yen Pao, and has decided to "fine" the paper $10,000 (£1,000) in addition to confiscating the consignment.]
181, Victoria Road,
Tientsin.
For the Tientsin British Committee of Information.
H. G. W. WOODHEAD,
(Acting Chairman).
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