"Run Amuck"

Wrathfully one day last week almost every shimbun (newspaper) in the Japanese Empire front-paged a picture of U. S. Secretary of State Henry Lewis Stimson. Scorching captions declared that in Washington he had "insulted the Imperial Japanese Army by charging, with ignorant presumption, that it has run amuck."

Excited Japanese devoured the captions, cursed Statesman Stimson by the million, spat by the thousand upon his inoffensive likeness. Even at the Japanese Foreign Office, where velvet politeness is an iron rule, Press Spokesman Shiratori Toshio snapped: "If a man in Mr. Stimson's position loses his head at such a critical moment in the affairs of Japan, the consequences would be very grave indeed. . . . Mr. Stimson says the Japanese Army in Manchuria 'ran amuck.' This is considered a very bold statement indeed."

In Washington that cautious and conservative old Manhattan lawyer, Statesman Stimson, had of course made no such bold statement. To one of his press conferences had come a group of correspondents, vaguely hopeful that the State Department's sphinx might say something and permit quotation. What did Mr. Stimson think, they asked, of reports that the Japanese Army had just launched a major offensive against Chinchow, the last Manchurian stronghold still in Chinese hands? Were the League of Nations and

President Hoover going to let Japan snatch the whole of Manchuria? Had the Secretary of State anything to say?

Mr. Stimson had nothing to say for quotation. But speaking informally he let quite a cat out of his diplomatic bag. He revealed the drift of an exchange of notes with the Imperial Government which he had asked the Japanese to keep secret and which they had kept secret. The striking part of Mr. Stimson's revelation was that he had received assurances not only from Japanese Foreign Minister Baron Shidehara but also through him further assurances from Japanese War Minister General Jiro Minanmi and from the Chief of the Japanese General Staff. These assurances were such, declared Mr. Stimson, that he could not "understand" reports of the Japanese advance against

Chinchow. Next day the Secretary of State said that by "understood" he meant "credit" and further informed correspondents that he meant "credit" in the sense of "believe." Thus he originally meant to say that he could not "believe" reports of General Honjo's offensive against Chinchow, but what he did say was that he could not "understand" those reports in view of the assurances he had received.

Not permitted to quote Mr. Stimson's original words, each correspondent had had to make what he could of them. The Associated Pressman came to the conclusion that, since Mr. Stimson could not "understand" the advance of the Japanese Army contrary to so many assurances, State Department officials doubtless credited widespread reports of a feud between the peaceably inclined Japanese civil Cabinet and pugnacious independent Japanese militarists like General Honjo. "Officials were given the impression," wired the A. P. in summarizing Mr. Stimson's press conference, "that the Military party, which is not under complete control of the civil Government, had simply run amuck."

In Tokyo the Japanese Rengo Agency (which later admitted "full responsibility" for the mixup) took the A. P. cable to mean that Mr. Stimson had actually said "run amuck." For two days until everyone could be soothed, harsh words flew. "On what basis," demanded the Japanese Foreign Office spokesman, "did Mr. Stimson see fit to fly into fulminations?"

Fortunately all this rumpus began just after the Japanese War Ministry and General Staff had taken the most important decision of the entire Manchurian affray: General Minanmi and his associates decided, for reasons which they considered military secrets, to recall the offensive launched against Chinchow by General Honjo who had already despatched from Mukden 10,000 soldiers in 13 armored trains escorted by a squadron of bombing planes.

In dead of night this formidable host, having advanced to within 30 mi. of Chinchow, received the order to retreat, obediently retreated. Two facts seemed adequate to explain: 1) Reports had been circulating for several days in Tokyo that since part of the railway over which General Honjo's offensive was launched is partly British owned, the British Government had resolved to rush Tommies to protect it in case of hostilities. 2) A tempting Chinese proposal, which would leave Japan indefinitely in control of most of Manchuria and save faces all round, had just been received by the Japanese Government from the French Embassy in Tokyo, who had it from the newly appointed Foreign Minister of China's Nanking Government, famed Dr. Vi Kuyuin Wellington Koo.

Dr. Koo, twice Premier (1922-24; 1926-27) of the later defunct Chinese Republic at Peking, once Minister at Washington, proposed last week a modified form of the League of Nations proposal for a "neutral zone" to be established as a sort of buffer between China proper and Manchuria pending a future China-Japanese peace conference. Negotiations on Dr. Koo's proposal began last week not at Nanking or Tokyo but in Peiping between the local Japanese consul and Marshal Chang Hsueh-liang, former War Lord of Manchuria but ousted by Japan (TIME, Sept. 28). Previously young Marshal Chang has breathed almost daily defiance to Tokyo but last week he seemed suddenly enthusiastic for the scheme of his friend Dr. Koo. Dec. 15 was mentioned tentatively as the date for establishing the neutral zone, extending roughly from the Great Wall 100 mi. to Chinchow.

In Tokyo the touchy Japanese War Office closed the week with two flat denials: 1) that Mr. Stimson had in any way brought about the retreat from within 30 mi. of Chinchow; 2) that the War Office had ever given any positive assurance that an attack on Chinchow would not or may not later be launched. If Mr. Stimson thought he had received any such positive assurance, declared the War Office, a mistake had evidently been made by the Japanese Foreign Ministry or the U. S. Embassy in Tokyo.

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