One of the most astonishing, features of the local situation is that, apart from the much despised General Liu Tso-lung, the Cantonese put forward no official to get in touch with the foreign communities 'As everyone knows, they have a very large staff of snappy, highly articulate persons skilled "in the business of being impertinent to the foreigner. These usually turn up long ahead of serious events, like the bill': posters who travel ahead of the circus, and attempt to establish relations with consuls, customs and salt folk and other foreign potentate:
In this community none of this itk his appeared. Some weeks Kuo-Taichi was here ax advance agent and gave a select coterie extremely convincing propaganda talk, so it was assumed that he would reappear and function as matter of foreign obfuscation after the conquest. But neither Mr, Kuo not any other person of similar calibre has come on the scene in Hankow and the consuls have no official knowledge of the fact that 'a foreign commissioner has been appointed. He has only made himself known through propaganda letters in the Chinese Hae again we presumably have the Russian touch, the idea being to ect everyone worried and nervous and force the foreigner to take the initiative, to assume the position of suppliant'in the opening of formal relations. The firing on shipping has of course forced us to take just this position, Unless we want to abandon all presence at courtesy and shell them merrilessly there is nothing to do but go after them ard ask for an understanding. Bésugg tensonable-in China is utterly thankless, but we have to justify curaelves' in our own sight, irres~ pective of Chinese opinion, so our consular and naval folk did take tie initiative that the cantonese wanted us to take and went boggin for peace and, while no satisfactory oficial relations have yet been established, pledges of good behave our have been exacted from General Tang Song-chi which have been duly violated.
Regulating Foreign River Traffic At Chenlingehi, the little trading' community at the junction of the Hang and Yangtze rivers just below Yochow, where the Cantonese have established batteries beside the Standard Oil installation which were to have stopped all gunboat movements, there is much bad feeling because the foreigner has not} observed the regulations drawn, up for his governance. After the! Wanhsien affair and the destroyer Stewart's well placed shot in Hanyang, the idea that field batteries foreign gunboats was abandoned in Chenlingebi, but. it was determined that a.show of inspection must Kept up for the sake of face, so alli gunboats were signalled from the Customs mast to stop and a senior officer was detailed to go forth on tug and call. These calls were not represented to the foreigner as inspections but -they, meant inspestion to. the Chinese and were! establishing a precedent _wh'ch would Later have been translated into a right of examination when they ceased yesterday. sIt is probably discourteous not to stop and receive an official caller when suth a call ig announced by signal but it would be disastrous if it were finally agreed that a foreign: Jgunboat must heave to and await orders every time a petty Chiness military officer runs up a flag and demands gri interview. When the Palos and Pigeon were en route to Tchang they politely heeded the signal and received an official caller. Admiral Cameron, on the Bee did the same, purely out of a sincere desire to be amiable, Yesterday the American gunboat Pigeon and the "French gunboat. Balny beth ignored the request for an interview, were fired upon and returned fire, doing serious damage. Out of this the Chinese nationalist can make an excellent case, It would be very hard to explain to the Home folk why it was essential that foreign gunboats on a Chinese river should refuse Chinese officers the courtesy of an interview.
The Balny's Reply Judging from a letter received here terday, the foreign residents at Chenlingchi, who were as much subject to the return fire as. the Chinese artillery, are fully as annoyed_as the Chinese. They seem te think that it was absolutely scandalous for them to be subjected to the risk of heavy fire from foreign men o' war after all. that they have been through and, while there is a fanny side to the picture. one cannot help feeling that. they' have reason to be irritated. Yet this highly explosive situation it would be very dangerous indeed if unidentified Cantonese colonel, representing an unrecognized army. of adventurers, could. call upon foreign battleships to account. for themselves, The Pigeon acknowledged fire! fence and then drifted on, but. the' Balny, an insignificant looking little boat, was fired upon some time after she had first silenced the batteries and-had to do it all over again. 'The local French resident share the bellicose Hankow' specie and have been very sad about: the inactivity of their upper river boats, are of course delighted with the Balny and have been telling on another all day today that intervention is at last a factor, Anglo-American community refuses to read quite so much into the Balny's sturdy notion bot ig certainly less pleased with it than the French, High Feelings at Chungking Every other wire from Chungking is reassuring, and all the alternate ones are alarming. It seems to ye fairly certain that there is a powerful anti-foreign movement develop-jing but that there has been no demonstration against foreigners yet. To-day, However, it is reported that the (Chinese population hag in some wey worked up a highly hysterical feeling and that a panic is spreading which may result in almost anything. This is very probably due to Admiral Cameron's arrival in Ichang with the Bee and a contingent of 75 men on the Hsiangwo. Chungking may think that the punishment that was visited upon Wanshien under severe provocation out to be inflicted upon Chung thought is entertained in Szechua:. it is certainly very important that the British and American gunboats should make all possible speed up river and demonstrate that while they are prepared to resent outraves in a fashion that will not be easily forgotten, it is not their business to wreak vengeance upon the innocent.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.