Aggression in Three Continents

Abstract

In Peking on Friday, 18 September 1931, the Chinese military ruler of Manchuria, known as the Young Marshal, was a guest at dinner of the British Minister to China. The evening was interrupted by the arrival of news that fighting had broken out between Chinese and Japanese troops along the Japanese-controlled south Manchurian railway line near Mukden, some four hundred miles away to the north-east of Peking. The Young Marshal at once telegraphed his Chinese troops to hold their fire and do nothing to provoke or increase trouble. Later in the night, however, communication with Mukden was cut and by the early hours of 19 September that city was reported to be in Japanese hands, its Chinese garrison of 10,000 men having surrendered with little loss of life. Other towns along and near the railway were also swiftly occupied by the Japanese who, on the following day, broadcast as the justification of their actions a Chinese attempt to sabotage a railway bridge near Mukden on the night of the 18th.¹