One striking feature of all/dicjeassions is that Chang Teé-lin's '$50,000,000, his superior numbers, his boasted equipment and his foreign legions of advisers, instructors and alleged combatants, make little or no impression upon Tocal opinion. The foreign public has come to understand, through observation, that these factors in wars in China are trifling as compared with the personality of the leaders. This truth Wu Pei-fa demonstrated clearly enough 1920 and in 19:
It is no secret here that Wu Pei-fa is almost without funds.
His desperate efforts to secure from the Chinese bankers, which have prompted the latter to discuss closing all local offices, are widely advertised. The many! observers who have seen his troops igo through to the front have made it known to all that his men are by no means adequately equipped for a winter campaign. Everyone Knows that while the I-chun rabble. inthe Chaoyang district is being defeated at every contact with the Fengtien troops and will continue to be defeated until Wang Cheng-pin's main body advances, the commanders at Jehol and beyond are having infinite difficulty with the distribution of troops and the transport of supplies and are a Jong way from the position where they can ce-operate with an! advance from Shanhaikuan.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.