Smuggling in North China The bombing " incident " on
Friday on the Tangku- Tientsin railway was so ominously like other " incidents" which have preceded Japanese aggression that it caused considerable alarm, which fortunately appears to have declined. The Japanese perhaps feel they have no need of further aggression while the smuggling trade into North China through the East Hopei Autonomous Anti-Communist Council is causing such grave difficulties to the Nanking Government. The Chinese customs oflicers, disarmed under the terms of the Tangku Truce, arc powerless to stop it. It is calculated that if smuggling on the present scale continues, it will cost the Government, in a full year, one-third of the total 1986 customs rev( nue at the porisof Tientsin and Chinwangtao, or $100,000.0on. There is no doubt that the Japanese are protecting and fostering the traffic. The effect of Japan's penetration of North China has shown itself -also in a weakening of the authority of the Nanking Government, which is now being urged by the authorities controlling the four South China provinces to embark on armed resistance to Japan, who is pursuing her usual tactics of fostering an " autonomy " movement in Fukien.
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