Sino-Japanese Negotiations • Thanks to a truce which was arranged
at the last moment the city of Peking was saved the disaster of a Japanese occupation, and the Japanese army, having ceased its advance, was strategically disposed within striking distance of the Tientsin railway. Further negotiations have led to the signing of a formal armistice which officially ends hostilities in North China ;• and under its terms a large area is to be demilitarized, and the Japanese undertake eventually to withdraw to the Great Wall. The Chinese were in no position to put up any further resistance. Up to now the Nanking Government, harassed by its rivals in Canton and by the Communist threat within• its own borders, has been loath to enter into direct negotiations with Japan. It has professed to pin its faith in the League of Nations, and to defer negotiations in the hope that some assistance would be forthcoming. But there has been none. Its recent futile armed resistance has been no more than a gesture for the benefit of Chinese public opinion. Now, with the enemy commanding the approach to the northern capital, it has been com- pelled—League or no League—to make the best composition it can with the powerful invader.
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