Now, you all know that tomorrow at Brussels, nations of the world are meeting to seek a peaceful settlement of the Sino-Japanese situation on the basis of the Nine-Power Treaty. It is therefore timely to ask, what will be America’s attitude at the Conference? And what concrete step is she prepared to take in concert with other Powers to back up the Nine-Power Treaty? America’s moral leadership in the world is going to be put to an acid test. The eyes of the world are fixed on her.
Permit me to ask you a few point-blank questions. Does America intend to make the Conference a face-saving affair, just to salve her conscience? Will she be satisfied with another meaningless Japanese reaffirmation of respect for China’s territorial and administrative integrity and the Open Door principle and destroy the spirit of the Nine-Power Treaty? Will she go to the Conference with the idea of “Head, China loses. Tail, Japan wins”? Will she allow Japan to confront the Conference with a fait accompli and get away with half a loaf if not the whole loaf? Will she sacrifice China’s essential rights as a price for the kind of “peaceful settlement” which Japan secretly seeks?
Or, will America let her conscience speak out aloud and bravely call a spade a spade? Will she exercise her right as a judge and see to it that the violator of the Nine-Power Treaty is properly dealt with? Is she determined to do all she can to uphold the letter and spirit of the Nine-Power Treaty? If need be, is she ready to back up her noble principles by concrete, courageous action? Is she prepared to defend and not to forfeit her moral leadership in the world?
My American friends, this is no time for quibbling or passing the buck. We must not fool ourselves or others, wittingly or unwittingly. Let us be courageous and, above all, be honest. Unless America and all the Powers are ready to take an honest and courageous attitude at the Brussels Conference, it will go down in history as one of the most futile and meaningless gatherings of the world’s statesmen and will seal the eternal doom of the cause of humanity, democracy and world peace.
The world awaits America’s answer.
About the Author
Emily Hahn (1905–1997) was the author of fifty two books, as well as 181 articles and short stories for the New Yorker from 1929 to 1996. She was a staff writer for the magazine for forty seven years. She wrote novels, short stories, personal essays, reportage, poetry, history and biography, natural history and zoology, cookbooks, humor, travel, children’s books, and four autobiographical narratives: China to Me (1944), a literary exploration of her trip to China; Hong Kong Holiday (1946); England to Me (1949); and Kissing Cousins (1958).
The fifth of six children, Hahn was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and later became the first woman to earn a degree in mining engineering at the University of Wisconsin. She did graduate work at both Columbia and Oxford before leaving for Shanghai. She lived in China for eight years. Her wartime affair with Charles Boxer, Britain’s chief spy in pre–World War II Hong Kong, evolved into a loving and unconventional marriage that lasted fifty two years and produced two daughters. Hahn’s final piece in the New Yorker appeared in 1996, shortly before her death.
A revolutionary for her time, Hahn broke many of the rules of the 1920s, traveling the country dressed as a boy, working for the Red Cross in Belgium, becoming the concubine to a Shanghai poet, using opium, and having a child out of wedlock. She fought against the stereotype of female docility that characterized the Victorian era and was an advocate for the environment until her death.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
The author and the publishers are indebted to the following for permission to include quotations from their work:
Harper & Brothers, for two quotations from This Is Our China, by Mme Chiang Kai-shek.
Henriette Herz, for a quotation from an article by Edgar Snow.
Fulton Oursler, for a quotation from his interview with Mme Chiang Kai-shek, reprinted from Liberty Magazine.
Penguin Books, Inc., for a quotation from China Struggles for Unity, by John Martin Douglas Pringle and Marthe Rajchman.
The Nation, for an extract from “Madame Sun Keeps Faith,” by Randall Gould.
Current History and Forum for a quotation from “China Unconquerable,” by Mme Sun Yat-sen, and for a quotation from an article by Mme Chiang Kai-shek.
Carol Hill, for an extract from Personal History, by Vincent Sheean, published by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc.
Copyright © 1941 by Emily Hahn
Cover design by Open Road Integrated Media
ISBN 978-1-4976-1953-1
This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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