News of the Week
THE perilous situation in Shanghai which the Govern- 1- ment foresaw has come to pass, and they are completely justified of their policy by events. Only just in time they decided to send the Defence Force to Protect the International Settlement. They did this without in any way compromising their far-seeing and magnanimous policy towards the Nationalist movement in China. The whole policy was a perfect combination of high : principle and practical provision against emer- gencies.' Now that it is possible to re-read the debates of a few weeks ago in the light of later knowledge, it is nayfor everyone to appreciate even more than was then possible how utterly wrongheaded were the criticisms by the Labour Party. If Parliament had listened to the °Pnosition we should now almost certainly be mourning tqrible loss of life in the Settlement besides pillage and torture, without even the consolation of knowing that brrlinary care had been taken to prevent those things.
