ABSTRACT
WITH the year 1932 we enter upon a still more complicated phase of the Sino-Japanese crisis. From the closing days of January until the end of March public attention was largely concentrated upon events at Shanghai. Manchuria passed into the background. It has sometimes been suggested that had it not been for the Shanghai episode the whole question of Manchuria would have dropped from the public mind. That might well have happened. It was the Japanese action at Shanghai which roused public interest, during the month of February and the first fortnight of March, to a pitch unparalleled at any other stage of the crisis. It was Shanghai which, in very large measure, alienated sympathies from Japan; and it was Shanghai also which led to a reopening of the discussion about “sanctions.” Moreover, during the greater part of the rest of 1932 Manchuria did almost drop from the minds of the great mass of the British people.
