ABSTRACT
DESPITE the League of Nations, which was unwilling to take warlike action against Japan, as provided for in Article XVI. of the Covenant, and which shrank from the untried experiment of an international boycott, Japan successfully wrested Manchuria, Jehol and part of Chahar from China, and occupied them in sufficient strength to deter China from any attempt at their recovery. Under the Tangku Truce Japan was in a semi-occupation of a large area in North China, there was a demilitarised zone in which the Japanese did as they liked, and according to the Japanese interpretation of the Tangku Truce, they could ask for the removal of any Chinese officials of whom they did not approve. It was hoped that the Central Government, after this demonstration of its weakness, would break up and that the Kuomintang would be discredited. This, however, did not happen. General Chiang Kai-shek devoted himself to the consolidation of his power wherever the Japanese did not intrude, and to the suppression of the peasant revolt-the “Communist-bandits” as they were officially called.
