Sidelights on the insufferable nuisance of China's army are given in our Ichang correspondent's letter, which appears in another column. Any one of these incidents may at any moment flare up into something of national importance, like Wu Pei-fu's march on Peking last July. For the moment what one would ecmphasize is that they have no connexion that anyone can trace with any of the larger political events outside their own district. They appear to be almost wholly local in their bearing, and even for those who, of interest or necessity, attempt to follow the tortuous course of Chinese politics. it is quite impossible to remember and identify these petty gamecocks and to make out what they are fighting for. Yet to the defenceless people lying in the path of the devouring soldiers, these deplorable quarrels are of the cruellest importance: and be it remembered that they are going on continually all over China. On the other hand, our Kanchow correspondent shows that soldiers may be as peaceful neigh-hours as anyone else. It all depends on their leaders. So some in high places~in China have a heavy responsibility to explain.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.