"T know exactly what you mean," he said, because 1 held precisely the same views myself. We thought we would set up a model provincial government and as_ others were convinced of our good intentions and studied our reforms they would be moved to join us. But this proved to be too slow. No one joined us or offered to support us. The people in other provinces are not accustomed to take the initiative and their rulers, militarists for the most part, are by no means unselfish. Our announced principles did not promise to promote their personal interests. The condition of China did not permit that Chinese devoted to reform should confine their work to one province. We could not wait for ever for outside support. If other provinces would not come to us, we had to save China by going to other provinces. We hoped to do this by peaceful means. We still hope to unite China by peaceful means but if peaceful means avail us nothing, we shall have to remove such obstacles as remain to China's regeneration by force.
"To apply our principles outside of this province we had to have a. governmental organization under a
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