Peking, Oct. 19.
The result of the elections in the Senate has been a great surprise to the laity. It was not generally supposed in the first place that Mi. Wang Chia-hsiang had. much chance of re-election as Speaker, while the number of votes given Mr. Yang Yung-tai was a shock to even the native press. At this writing neither of these gentlemen has secured a majority but they: received so many more votes than anyone' else that the next ballot will be between them only.
It will be remembered that Mr. Yang Yung-tai—or Yang Wing-tai as he is called in the South—was once Governor of Kuangtung under the Lu Yung-ting regime. He is a Cheng. Hsueh Hui man, is cordially disliked by all of the Kuomin—tang, radical or conservative, and could not possibly have received any great number of votes in the Senate if the Kuomintang element in that body were up to its former strength.. After-the assassination of General Teng in the Canton railway station last March, both General Chen Chiung-ming's following and Dr. Sun's following publicly denounced Mr.
Yang Yung-tai as the instigator of the crime. He was suppos d to have been in Hongkong at the time, but though the British police in Hongkong gave General Chen's agents every. facility for collecting evidence in the Colony, nothing was ever found to connect Mr. Yang with the shooting. Such stories are, however, hoid to_ kill and such convictions hard to drive from men's minds. The local press has revived this charge since Mr. Yang has loomed large: in' the Senate and his election certainly will not be taken kindly in the South. If Parliament hopes for reunification Mr.' Yang's election to the Speakership of the senior legislative. body would scarcely seem tactful, to say the least. However this may be, it does reveal the unsuspected strength of the Cheng Hsueh Hui in the. Senate.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.