They conceive in Paotingfu that the one great fruit of Chang Tso-lin's defeat is national reunion and that this is surely maturing. To this end nothing was essential but the creation of a favourable opportunity. The personality of presidents and the quality of cabinets play little part in it now. They were only a few tangible obstacles in the way of reunion, Chief among these were Hsu Shih-chang, Sun Yat-sen and the parliament question. A summary elimination of two of these obstacles was effected through the removal of Hsu Shih-chang and the recall of the old parliament. They were sure that events would prove that the genuine desire of reunion throughout the country, heightened by an unanimous horror of further fighting and combined with the common sense of all classes of Chinese, would sweep away all other obstacles great and small. These forces would eliminate Sun Yat-sen within a few days and cancel the existence of a separate government in the South. There was no use fighting Chang Tso-lin after he and his people had finally confessed themselves defeated, a consummation which would also come in a few days. The movement towards reunion was stronger than either political conspiracy or military force. Therefore why not let it do the work instead of wasting the country with further If such individuals as Chang Tso-lin resisted this force they would be, mojo surely eliminated than they could ever be by gunpowder. They could therefore be safely ignored. Some of the Tuchuns were kicking up their heels? Yes, naturally. They saw their nemesis hovering over them and were gesticulating against it. Like Ghang Tso-lin and Sun Yat-sen they would either capitulate under the pressure of a real national desire for reunion or extinguish one another and themselves.
The government in Peking was the least of all problems. An at-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.