6 JANUARY 1933, Page 6

Japan South of the Wall The seizure of Shanhaikwan by

Japanese troops is profoundly disturbing from many points of view. It is an evidence of the continued tension in every region abutting on Manchuria. It gives Japan for the first time since the evacuation of Shantung a footing south of the Great Wall. It lends colour to the persistent rumours of Japanese designs on the whole of North China. And it is a sinister comment on the deterrent effect of the conversations now in progress at Geneva. As usual there is a violent conflict of evidence as to how the affair started, each side vehemently accusing the other of being responsible, but the end of it is, as at Mukden, that the Japanese troops remain in possession of a Chinese town—so far, that is, as the town has not been destroyed. * * * *