WAR IN CHINA: Ultimatum and Blockade

From Chinwangtao, the seaside resort just below the Great Wall, to Singapore, the big British naval base at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, the coast of Eastern Asia rumbled last week with warlike activity. At Tientsin Japanese soldiers tightened their two-weeks-old blockade on the British Concession; at Chefoo and Tsingtao Japanese officials sponsored anti-British demonstrations; at Shanghai British Ambassador to China Sir Archibald Clark Kerr was surrounded with a heavy guard after "terrorists" had threatened his life; the Japanese captured one Chinese port, closed another, attacked two more (Foochow, Wenchow); at Hong Kong British troops feverishly erected barbed wire entanglements and built pillbox fortifications; at Singapore 44 French and British naval, military and air officers conferred on "common action" in the Far East.

Swatow. Japan's victory-of-the-week over China was at the treaty port of Swatow, 180 miles north of Hong Kong. Here Japan also suffered a minor diplomatic defeat from western nations. Once a city of 178,000, Swatow had been bombed by Japanese planes daily for the last ten weeks. All electric lights had been cut off, the waterworks were out of order, the municipal buildings were all destroyed. By day Swatow was a deserted city, but at night, when no bombers came, it hummed with shipping activity. To the port came British, French, U. S., Scandinavian ships bringing war materials. From Swatow they were taken overland in trucks to Shiuchow, 240 miles away, headquarters of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's Southeastern Chinese Army.

Determined to put an end to this traffic, the Japanese last week sent seven warships to the port and after a brief shelling landed sailors and marines. In twelve hours the city was occupied. In the harbor, however, lay the U. S. destroyer Pillsbury and the British destroyer Thanet. On shore were 40 U. S. citizens, mostly missionaries, and 80 Britons. During the occupation of the city Japanese naval authorities peremptorily demanded that British and U. S. warships leave at short notice.

Admiral Harry E. Yarnell, commander-in-chief of the U. S. Asiatic Fleet, received the ultimatum on his flagship the cruiser Augusta, anchored off Chinwangtao, some 1,500 miles North, where he had gone after a brief inspection trip to Tientsin. He replied by 1) ordering the Pillsbury to remain, 2) dispatching another destroyer, the Pope, to the spot. The British seconded the U. S. by not only keeping the Thanet at Swatow but by sending the Scout to join her. Nothing happened to the ships, nor to any of the U. S. or British nationals ashore.