Feb. 24, Tue past five days have brought from Peking two pieces of news of the gravest import. The first was the announcement of an advance of Yen 7,000,000 to Peking by a Japanese group, the seriousness of which, as we pointed out yesterday, is, not so much that it tided the Chinese militarists over the New Year and thus enabled them to snap their fingers at the Powers' suggestion of disbandment, but that the Japanese Government has permitted its nationals to make hay of the Four Power organization of which it professes itself to be 'a member. The second piece of information that appears to us so very serious is contained in Mr. Bruca7Baxter's article to-day. He tells us that lavish entertainment of Chinese officials by unofficial Japanese is taking place, with the object of paving the way to a' direct settlement between Peking and Japan of the Shantung question and, it is believed, to the surrender of the Fenghuangshan iron mines at Nanking to the Japanese. group who got " concession of the mines in 1917. (This particular question is dealt with in a separate note). The negotiations, Mr. Baxter says, are informal, the intention being to bring them to a point at which the Peking Government will be able to affix its seal without further delay, so as to avoid publicity likely to excite the students. Meanwhile the latter are being rigorously restrained from public demonstrations. A virtual state of martial law prevails in Peking, and according to credible report orders for similar repression have been sent to the Yangtze Valley.
Now it may be objected that it is no concern of any third party if China comes to a private understanding with Japan either in respect of Shantung or for the sale of any iron or other mine. That objection would be perfectly sound if these arrangements were really being conducted by and with the approval of China. But everybody knows that. China, as a nation, has no interest either in the loan or the other negotiations now disclosed, is indeed violently opposed to them, and that all these agreements with Japanese are the work of a small coterie of Chinese officials, manifestly incapable
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.