Tt is hard to know what to think of Wu Pei-fu's position but the consensus of opinion throughout North China seems to be that he has ceased for ever to be a big figure in military affairs. It is firmly believed that neither Sun Ch'uanfang nor Chang Tso-lin contributed in any wey to his misfortunes in Hupeh and it is not thought that they. get any satisfaction out of the collapse of his defence; but at the same time no one believes that they will help him back into a Dre-eminent position. Liu Tso-lung's desertion at Hankow and Chin Yun-go's refusal to fight at Wushengkuan are sufficient evidence that! Wu Pei-fy has lost his power to command the that were regarded as his own particular! following. "There remains nothing he can put real reliance but his bodyguard, the remnant of! his once famous 3rd Division. He is therefore not a valuable all Wa's Napoleonic manner in his dealings with subordinates and colleagues has not endeared him either ina generation when hard discipline is keenly resented. It is felt that unless he can retire to some quiet place and build up again a fighting force of his own, devotedly loyal to his person, of 20,000 or 30,000 men. he will continue to be, in all his efforts, the victim of folk like Liu Tso-lung and Chin Yun-no, Paotingfu, Tamingfu and the! northern section of the Kin-Han railway are now being token from under cover of a Fengtien movement to his support. If Fengtien or Shantung soldiery enter! Honan, ostensibly te. help Pei-fu, Honan will be added to the Fengtien preserve. Sun Ch'uanfang did not enter Hupeh until the "Cantonese and Hunanese had established themselves in the heart of the.provinee and had] driven Wa Po-fu's armies to the Honan border, because he was not! invited to help Wu against the Cantonese. He is now entering a province abandoned by Wu Pei-fu. and if he takes it he will undoubted-it, and there will be no In Shantung the writer learned from officers that many of the Tupan's senior subordinates _and advisers were infected with this same contagious sense of impendinsy dom, Here in Peh it is commonly reported that Mr. Pan Fu will not accept the Ministry of Finenee at General Chang's ar-his patron's fate high pass between and Tsinanfu, defence: ork Goward which is hard pt asa sign Of nervonsness.
From the railway trains both Chinese and White Russians may be teen constructing defences and igging. gun pits against hypothetical advance from the south with the Cantonese withdrawing! from the Kin-Han line and Sun! Chuan-tang deep in Kiangsi with the majority of his hest troops! 4 tu Mankow and Kiukiang there has been much speculation upon! what, Chang Chung-ch'ang would. do to Kiangsu if Sun Ch'uan-fang moved his centre of military power as far up-river as Kiukiang. In Nanking, however, it was easy to Giscover' that Chang Chun-ch'ang was not feared and that it was not felt that Son Gh'uan-fang had to rely upon Chang Chung-ch'ang's as-ances of good behaviour during his absence from Nanking; whi Shantung it was easy to understand to assert Wu Pei-fu's prior claim.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.