Jan. 23, Ir has been an unfortunate fact for the past few years that any review of affairs in China for the year has had to sound a depressing note and it is a matter of regret that very much the same note has to be repeated in reviewing 1919 so far as China is concerned. On the face of things China is very little advanced from the position she held in 1918. Her politics are in the same chaotic state, the same amount of selfish intrigue is to be noted, the same division between North and South prevails and this enormous country, by reason of its concomitant weakness, can neither make that progress which its lovers desire to see nor present so bold a front to the world as its size and wealth demand. It would, however, be idle to assert that all elements which make for reform and advancement were quiescent or that everything that was done during the year was for the bad. The year has witnessed the formation of a clamant public opinion and whether this was formed by the right methods or managed along the right lines matters little in view of the fact that through that manufacture of opinion signs of a keener interest in the welfare of the nation at large by its people are being evidenced which must in the long run tend for good.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.