More angry criticism has been levelled at the Diplomatic Body since their formal call upon President Tsao Kun on Monday than has been lavished upon the plenipotentiaries since the Lincheng raid upon the Blue Express. A good-sized proportion of the local community thought that Tsao Kun should not be recognized at all for reasons too numerous to catalogue, but chiefly for the reason that he is the acknowledged chief of a big military group whose indifference to foreign treaty rights, whose indifference to their obligations. as officials and whose active prosecution of civil war in their own interests, has made life more adventuresome than comfortable or profitable for foreigners in China, As the most conspicuous figure im this group Tsao Kun is the most responsible, so that his recogmition as President en any terms is nothing but a condonement of the many various outrages upon individual foreigners and of the very evident contempt for the rights and safety of foreigners now displayed throughout China. This act of recognition is considered all the weaker because at no time before he came to Peking did Tsao Kun give any sign that he was conscious of the burden of his responsibilities or make any sincere attempt to better conditions. He and his people were frankly too busy realizing their own ambitions to give any attention to the troubles of the foreigner or to listen to his demands. It was therefore very widely and keenly felt here that recognition of Tsao Kun on any terms—putting aside altogether the questions of bribery and corruption, which, as the Japanese say, are domestic matters—was not only undignified but pitifully weak on the part of the Diplomatic Body.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.