6 DECEMBER 1935, Page 1

Moves in Northern China The traditional leisureliness of Oriental diplomacy

is in some respects a set-off to the drastic methods preferred' by General Doihara and the Japanese soldiers in regard to the so-called autonomy movement in Northern China. For a moment the situation seemed to have taken a better turn, for the Nanking Government despatched its War Minister, General Ho Ying-Chin, to negotiate with the local Chinese leaders in the " autonomy area," with the aim of concluding an agreeMent which should leave the northern provinces autonomous, but 'definitely under' the suzerainty of Nanking—putting them in very much the position of Canton, with its semi-independent govern-. merit. But since that does not suit Japan's ideas it is unlikely to happen; The Japanese soldiers, while 'pro- testing that the autonomy movement is a spontaneous uprising fur which they have no responsibility, refuse flatly to. allow Nanking to send troops into the area involved, integral part of China though it incontestably is. That Japan's action is veiled—and very indifferently veiled—aggression no one out of ,Japan, and not many people in it, can for a moment doubt. But the cost of her policy is mounting up. The budget estimates just published show that service expenditUre accounts for 47 per cent, of the whole. That' cannot go on for ever.