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AMERICAN EDITION.

THE SHANGHAI EVENING POST & MERCURY.

New YORK, MARCH 31, 1944. VOL. I, NO.13.

Chinese Press Raises Issue On Hongkong

By HENRY CAVENDISH Indications that the Chinese might be driving an entering wedge into the Sino-British issue over the future status of Hongkong were seen this week in an editorial pub- lished in the important Chungking vernacular newspaper Sao Tang

Pao.

The editorial, according to press advices from the wartime capital, called for a definite understanding on the postwar restoration to China of Hongkong and Kowloon, and the journal commented that China does not ask for pity or gifts from Brit- ain, but rather "a true recognition of Chinese culture and the real sig- nificance of China's war against Japan."

Only Obstacle

The editorial added that the only obstacle to improved rélations be- tween the two nations was the re- storation of British holdings in China, and concluded by quoting remarks of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in his book, "China's Des- tiny":

"I am certain that Britain would not desire to harm relations be- tween the two countries just for the sake of a small piece of land."

Significance was attached to the editorial by the fact that the Sao Tang Pao is the press organ of the Chinese Army, of which President Chiang, as Generalissimo, is com→ mander-in-chief. Moreover, it is considered additionally significant that while expressions of this tenor are known to have been current heretofore in Chungking, the Sao Tang Pao editorial is among the first along such lines to have passed the ordinarily closely guard- ed Chinese censorship.

Although Chinese have been chary of making any public state- ments-even in the United States -on the subject of Hongkong, the San Francisco Chronicle on March

6 quoted Dr. Chang Kia-ngau, for- S mer Minister of Communications h who was then on a West Coast trip in the interest of postwar plan- ning, as remarking "with ́ gentle y candor":

"I hope the British people will o find a solution to the Hongkong - problem that will satisfy Chinese

ambitions."

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Varied Opinions

Well informed Chinese quarters

in New York, however, were at

t some variance this week as to just what interpretation should be placed

of the upon publication Army newspaper editorial, and its passage by the Chinese censorship

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for circulation in the United States.

One entirely unofficial but ordi- narily well informed

source ex-

plained the Chinese thesis on Hong-

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kong in this manner:

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"China expects to get Hongkong back after the

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such action voluntarily?" he was asked.

An enigmatic shrug of the soul-

(Please turn to page 7)

PAGE 7. า.

Hongkong Issue Raised by Journal

(Continued from page 1)

ders and a wry smile was the only j response.

On the British side, a source just

n as unofficial but just as well in-

e formed. stated the corresponding

English thesis in these words:

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"Britain expects Hongkong to be The

ft retaken by military action.

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future of Hongkong will be decided after the war by the British Gov-

ie ernment, to whom it belongs."

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Conservative View

On the other hand, a more con- servative Chinese view was reflect-

ed by another unofficial Chinese 1 observer who expressed the opinion' that the Sao Tang Pao editorial|1 was, after all, just a newspaper edi-¦‹ torial, and the fact that the Sao|1 Tang Pao is an organ of the Chi-| | nese Army lent the editorial no i more weight than would be carried i by a similar editorial in any Chi-|1 nese newspaper. China does not wish to stir up trouble over the status of Hongkong, was the sub-

stance of this observer's remarks.

Meanwhile, reports received by i the Shanghai Evening Post in New( York this week from its Chung-i d. king Edition indicated that regard-1 less of what attitude might be as- C sumed regarding the Hongkong- Canton area outside the country, it was increasingly in the headlines he within China itself. One dispatch || al stated that the Japanese were strengthening the Canton defenses in anticipation of renewed Allied ( aecial blows,

another dispatch conditions im Hongkong told of heavy damages to oil stocks and other vital war supplies already in- flicted there by Allied bombers.

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PAGE 4.

Hongkong-A Sore Spot

When Great Britain excluded Hongkong from the recent settlement of extraterritorial accounts with China, she merely reserved a sleeping problem. The Chinese have up to now kept quiet. But they aren't happy on that particular subject. The problem will wake up.

Over the months there has been silence out of Chungking on the subject of Hongkong. Foreign press correspondents who elicited incautious com- ment about Hongkong from a Government official found that the Chinese censorship was on the job to stop it from going to the outside world.

But now the Chinese army newspaper Sao Tang Pao has come out with a declaration that Hongkong stands as the sole obstacle to improved relations. A definite understanding for postwar restoration of Hongkong to China is urged. That the censors passed an Associated Press dispatch revealing this editorial strikes us as significant.

All that we've heard about the British being shoved off on a barren, unwanted rock and making it Hongkong as we know it is true. So far as that is concerned, Shanghai was raised from the status of a barren mud flat through foreign enterprise, too. But there are two sides to all stories. The Chinese were fundamentally responsible for the glory of both towns, and anyway it is no more than human for the Chinese to feel that any city on China soil should be China's. To pick a correspond- ing example in England, Limehouse is not a Chi- nese Republic Colony!

Viewing the whole thing realistically, it is im- possible to see anything but trouble ahead if Britain hangs on to Hongkong. Such an apparently exclu- sive bit of trouble could easily go beyond bounds, moreover, and swiftly change from a Sino-British controversy to something involving the whole for- eign position in postwar China.

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