Tientsin. The shattering news that Britons had hauled down their flag and virtually evacuated their concession at Hankow (TIME, Jan. 17) traversed China last week and completely altered the plans of that shrewd, semibarbarous Northern warlord, Chang Tso-lin, who dominates both Peking and Tientsin. Heretofore, Chang has stood with the foreigners against the new Chinese Nationalist Government which has swept across half China and forced the British to evacuate Hankow. Last week Chang decided that if the Nationalists could seize $60,000,000 worth of British property at Hankow, "Chicago of China," and bluff it through, he could do even better at Tientsin, "the commercial capital of North China."
Soon a sumptuously robed representative of the luxurious Chang called at the various foreign consulates in Tientsin. He hinted with excessive politeness that the incident at Hankow had established a precedent. The great lord Chang Tso-lin felt that as a matter of patriotism he must demand as much for China and himself as had the Nationalists at Hankow. Therefore, would the foreigners at Tientsin seriously consider turning over their concessions—worth $120,000,000—to Chang, in the near future? The great lord urged no indecent haste, but in the meantime he would raise the duties on all goods imported into North China and pocket the increase as a slight evidence of his patriotism. . . .
Dazed, the foreigners at Tientsin paid the increased import dues, wondered if they would really have to evacuate.
Shanghai. Midway between the patriots of North and South China, the great foreign colony at Shanghai remained last week in uneasy expectancy that one faction or the other will soon find a precedent for seizing the foreign concessions— valued at nearly $1,000,000,000.
In Shanghai the week was ugly. One thousand Chinese factory workers struck, began to smash their machines and had to be quelled with cold spatting justice from a high pressure fire hose. Street car workers struck, and one Chinese foreman who sought to harangue them back to work was quietly assassinated. Cool but wary, the Shanghai Municipal Council barricaded the foreign quarter, ordered barbed wire strung where it would do the most good, and published in Chinese and English a solemn warning that the colony would defend itself to the last rickshaw, if attacked by any Chinese faction whatever.
Though 58 foreign war craft with a possible landing force of 5,000 men were anchored off Shanghai, there was desperate uncertainty as to what they would do in case of a Chinese attack. To bombard prematurely would be to incite the Chinese to murder out of hand all the hundreds of isolated foreign missionaries in the interior of China who are absolutely with out defense.
A faint earnest of what these missionaries may expect was given by a sampan rower at Hankow, a fortnight ago, who had been hired to row the Bishop of Hankow across the Yangtze River. In mid stream, and with 16 foreign war craft in sight, he drew a knife, forced the Bishop to hand over all his money, clapped the Bishop's hat on his own head, and finally landed him at an isolated spot, volleying curses meanwhile.