News of the Week
IT is unfortunate that a wrong emphasis has been given in many newspapers to the sending of troops to Shanghai. To read some of the accounts of the departure from England of a division of troops and a thousand marines one might think that an attempt was being made to work up a war atmosphere. This is an inversion of the facts and a serious embarrassment to the Government. The Government's policy is twofold ; first there is the determination to come to an arrangement with the Cantonese Nationalists if that be humanly possible by diplomatic negotiation, and secondly there is the determination to protect life and property at Shanghai. It is hoped that the need to use ships and soldiers for defence will never arise. The diplomatic side of the Government's twofold policy is by far the more important and it ought not to be obscured by a wholly wrong einphasiS.
