Tue question whether China is to have a new government or whether by some shuffling of the cards the present party will be able still to retain the spoils of office is one that is agitating the minds of Chinese everywhere, and although we have recently written upon it, it demands further and still deeper consideration. To foreigners it seems that another question is equally pertinent—whether in the event of the present government falling there is anything better to put in its place. And, with the limited knowledge at their disposal, most are inclined to give a negative answer, We-are becoming fairly familiar with the different parties, and so far as we can see, there is little to choose between them. There is first the recognized government in Peking, recognized by the foreign Powers, we suppose, on the principle followed by the old sea captain who, when asked whether he did not think it was time to take to the boats, replied, ''In a storm always stick to the biggest chunk." "Peking seems at present to be "the biggest chunk," and foreign governments must of necessity recognize it as the government of China. But Peking is split into two opposing camps each hating the other so heartily that were they not in the presence of the enemy in the South there would be open war between them. In fact, notwithstanding the South, one of these parties already appears to be edging the other off the scene.
Then there is the Military Government in the South led by Tsen Chun-hsuan which seems to occupy the legal position of a belligerent. The Southern Military Government has also its opposition, in the Constitutional Party led by Wu Ting-fang, Tang Shao-yi and Sun Yat-sen. This party has shaken the dust of Canton from its feet and is now in Shanghai, and is even considering a self-denying ordinance by which it will banish itself to Yunnan and there set up a legal, representative government for the whole of China, which wil] be about as effective as a picture on a movie screen. If one might judge from the Chinese press this latter party possesses the confidence of the people more than the others, but latest reports tell us that its leader, Wu Ting-fang, has gone to Japan for his
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.