CHINA: Newfangled Ronin

Classic Japanese heroes are the famed Forty Seven Ronin who perished centuries ago but live in Japanese brains today as examples of furtive, desperate, suicidal valor. Last week the Chinese military commander of Hopei Province, General Shang Chen, charged that “modern Japanese ronin” are sneaking about in his province stirring up Chinese farmers to revolt.

Sure enough, embattled farmers rose last week, capturing Hsiangho 40 mi. from Peiping, and besieging Yungching west of Tientsin. When General Shang dispatched two companies of Chinese soldiers to quell the rebels, Japanese officials flew into a rage, thundered that the rebels were in the official “demilitarized zone” set up after the Tangku Truce (TIME, June 5, 1933), and therefore could not be touched by Chinese soldiers who must not enter it. Down sat the two companies of Chinese on the opposite bank of a canal from the demilitarized zone, within sound of the shooting rebels & ronin.

No Chinese could say whether Japan would succeed in setting up a separatist puppet regime starting with the demilitarized zone, but all were talking about such a possibility as Chinese arrived in Nanking last week for the annual Conference of the Government Party or Kuomintang opening officially Nov. 1.