General satisfaction will be felt at news conveyed in our Peking correspondent's letter to-day that popular excitement on the subject of the Jepancee in Shantung is beginning to calm down; and although he does not actually say 80, one rather suspects, certainly one hopes, thet China has made her last protest. The Government is greatly to be congratulated on the firm stand that it has taken through the whole crisis. Had it in any way yielded to the popular agitation, by influence, a most disas-largely fomented though thie was
trous collision might have occurred. Having thoroughly protested however, it will doubtless see the wisdom of dropping the question for the time being, partly because of the danger which still exists of giving any handle to hotheads—possibly sise to revolutionaries interested in' making trouble for the Government; partly, because there is no need to dwell too much upon the fact that protests are China's only recourse. China has twice been badly let down by Germany, once when the latter bullied Peking into conniving at the perfectly unrighteous fortification of Kisochou; and again, since this war began, when she used the whole resources of the Tsinanfu railway to strengthen Tsingtao, Both actions constitute such a violation of China's neutrality as to deprive her of any right to protest to Japan and Great Britain But these countries very well understand how China is situated and in drawing the teeth of Tsingtao they act in truth as friends, not oppressors, of this sorely tried country.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.