3 Dec. 18. xror@ation from Peking tells} jus that China's radical _politicians are openly advocating the immediate abolition of "unequal" treaties, no doubt under the influence of the U. S. S. R. Embassy. © Unless, therefore, the: more reasonable element—of which there is certainly no lack) in China, though it appears at] [present to be less efficacious in /Feking than elsewhere—can control the extremists, there appears} grave possibility that, if the Initernational Conference on Extraterroriality adopts recommendations unfavourable to the aspirations of these groups, the) Peking Government will immediately denounce all foreign rights, and invite the Powers ito negotiate new "equal treaties, the terms of which it will dictate according to its own ideas. Such action could hardly fail to lead to the cessation of diplomatic' intercourse with Peking and the consequent withdrawal of recognition by the Powers. That would not mean any outbreak of hostilities against the Chinese nation, but it would mean an end of the Peking Government, and the probable withdrawal of Ministers to some Treaty Port.
But will China—we speak now] of the reasonable, industrious} 4nd peace-loving Chinese nation—endorse such a dangerous step on the part of a government that by no means represents} them? Furthermore, would the powerful combination of Tu-ichuus of Central China and the Yangtze Valley endorse a me: ure that must indirectly recoil] upon them, in that it would place} the control of the country in the, hands of Ma Fei Yuhsiang? And lastly, will the Chinese merchants join with the ultra-radical elements, led Moscow, in ruining the foreign! trade of their country and submit to a doubtful communistic experiment on their own body? We have the best of reasons for that they will no', a policy on the part of Peking would not only can deep distr it and even hostility on the part of the masses of the people; it would rouse all the best elements in the student! body, the more organized merchant associations and those Powerful tuchuns to whom we have referred, to make some amicable arrangement with foreign Powers over the heads Peking. Political combinations would tend to form which would refuse to recognize the validity] of such an act, and it is conceivable that they might establish a Government at Nanking, an idea by no means new, and one that would leave the Manchu capital to its fate.
Would. the Foreign Powers stand by Peking' as they have done in the past, in such an event? Or would they consider that Nanking, the old capital of China and the more central one, had an equal claim to their recognition? As they must have withdrawn recognition from Peking before such, events as we have imagined could take place, they might be driven-to accept] the new situation as the only solution of an impossible pre-dicement much as the Legations dislike the idea of quitting Peking, And such might prove the straightest road to the ending! of China's troubles. The dubious Politics of Peking have been endured over-long, and new influences are working within her which can never bring peace to China, The Republic was first established in Nanking.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.