Oct. 20.
'Tue anxieties, which on Friday, were acute regarding the future disposal of Marshal Lu's old troops, gave place to a calmer' feeling on Saturday, as there appeared reason to hope that a thermore, as we read the terms! that have actually been arranged, we cannot but realize that if Marshal Lu's old troops had not been able to camp themselves with Shanghai at their backs, the Kiangsu Marshal would have been able to deal with them much more cheaply than he has done. The treachery of Chen Yao-shan and the fil-omened intervention of "Little" Hsu have cost him dear. On the other hand, we may be-Hieve that Marshal Chi was genuinely anxious not to use forciple measures, once Marshal Lu' had fled. From the onlooker's point of view a decisive victors for one side or the other was—and indeed as regards the major issue remains—the chief desideration. A Chinese general, however, cannot forget that it is a civil war he is. engaged in, which, unhappily, there are men of the same province engaged on both sides. A wise leader must ever have in mind the ultimate settlement and the prime importance of leaving no more cause of inter-provincial bitterness behind than is absolutely unavoidable.
Nevertheless, although the compact arrived at during-the weekend averts an outbreak and is! welcome for the cause of peace! now, it cannot be called ideal. It does not appear to be in any sense permanent settlement. Those men who are now paid off and disbanded are almost inevitably bound to drift back into somebody's army before long. They' enlisted in the first place _be-use there was no room for them in civilian life and they are no more likely to find work outside! barracks now than formerly. As for those soldiers who have been transferred to the ranks of their former antagonists, their loyalty in the new allegiance is unlikely to be very firm. Finally, General Sun Chuan-fang of Chekiang, who has hitherto had no troops of his own worth mentioning, is provid. ed with a brand new' army of] Some one else's manufacture. It. was hardly to be supposed that he would not sooner or later form an army, but if he had to have one, it would certainly have been better that he should recruit it} in Chekiang in the orthodox way.
We are, in short, brought back again to the ugly fuct that, the floating population of China' that can find no regular employment, and the large number of them! who have been taught, during the past few years, to look upon the barracks of the nearest Tuchun as the only alternative to starvation or banditry constitute a lever ever ready to the hands of unscrupulous men, to engineer themselves into position and These conditions must no matter who wins the war in North China, until China's natural resources are conserved, her waterways redeemed and her' capacity to find employment for her teeming millions enlarged. It does not appear to us necessary to wait for a paper unification of China to achieve these improvements. Every province is big enough and, under a wit ministration of its revenues, really rich enough to take such in hand for itself, thus at once affording employment for the, men who now idle about barrack' compounds and a future full of opportunity for their sons. And if every provincial ruler would set himself diligently to this work, there would be no more need wars to decide what sort of animating—the men who successively betrayed their trust. Chinese report does not hesitate to say they were bribed with loge sums of money and larger promises of future preferment, We do not know whether thi trio but we cin imagine no thy motive that would lead to such despicable acts, The resettlement would be arrived at which would avert the threatened danger of a battle on the Settlement boundary. Such a contretemps, with all the damage to property in the northern district which must have ensued, Marshal Chi was most anxious to avoid; and Shanghai's thanks are, certainly due to him in no small. national constitution was to prevail. gapore last year there were 58 trade bankruptcies, of which 89 were Chinese, and of which the Tiabilties of ome exceeded a million dollars. There were two bankrupteies the liabilities of which were between a half and one million dole hearsay of the story in the measure for the patience and tars, and five between $100,000 and world's press will create a most' forbearance he has shown, "Fur-'3300,000.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.