The Omens in China
Reassuring official statements are apt to carry even less weight • in the East than they do in the West, but the mere fact that the Chinese Communists have at so early a stage established a Foreign Affairs Commission in Shanghai and allowed the head of it to identify himself publicly is encouraging. Mr. Chang Han-fu, the individual in question, reaffirmed early this week the benevolence of his Government's intentions towards foreigners and urged them to carry on business as usual. His exhortation is not at present being counteracted by any unduly restrictive practices by other branches of the Military Control Commission, but the cumbrous and dilatory working of Mao Tse-tung's administrative machine is illustrated by the case of the 'Amethyst,' whose passage down- stream, though sanctioned in principle some time ago, still awaits the completion of the necessary—to say nothing of the unnecessary— formalities. Similar delays arc likely to attend the departure from Mukden of the American consular staff there, who have been under a polite form of house-arrest ever since the city fell last autumn, and have now been recalled. The Russians, repeating the pro- cedure they adopted at Peking, have dosed their Shanghai Consulate, and their Ambassador, who has been kicking his heels in the intrigue-laden atmosphere of Canton, has been summoned to Moscow, via—it is believed—Paris. Events seem to be moving slowly but inevitably towards the establishment of some sort of official relations between the "People's Government" and the leading foreign Powers with interests in China. As far as this country is concerned, such a development is highly desirable. It is not one that can be engineered by some bold and sudden demarehe, but there is no reason to fear that our representatives in China will miss any opportunity they may be given to embark on the delicate, almost certainly protracted and probably demi-official negotiations which are likely to precede any sort of diplomatic entente. •
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