Kite-Flying in the Philippines
What useful purpose is to be served by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's digression to the Philippines, where he has been holding conference with President Quirino ? They have, it is officially stated, discussed the formation of a Pacific Union to combat Com- munism and promote economic co-operation, and it is their inten- tion to call a preliminary conference of the interested parties at an early date. But who are the interested parties ? They include, presumably, America, Australia and New Zealand, and it hardly seems probable that any of these will rally to a banner raised under such equivocal auspices ; for opposition to Communism in the Pacific does not necessarily imply support for a Chinese leader whose headquarters are no longer on the Chinese mainland. Mean- while the situation at Shanghai continues to deteriorate—economically because of the Nationalist blockade, politically because the Com- munists are exploiting the xenophobia which is latent in almost all Chinese to harass and discredit the foreign community. Last week's maltreatment of an American Vice-Consul, from whom a public apology for an imaginary offence was extracted by means of physical violence, was typical of their methods, which vividly recall those of the Japanese at Tientsin ten years ago. Prefabricated "Incidents" of this kind serve much the same purpose as the Nazi pogroms used to by distracting the attention of the public front economic hardships. Nothing, in fact, is less. calculatedto alleviate those hardships than the persecution of foreigners, and the Com- munist authorities are only adding to their difficulties by encouraging brutal acts of barbarity.
Previous page
