The decision of the teachers of Po sing University and others to go on strike in view of the continued imprisonment of some 40 students, who were arrested months ago when demonstrating before the Presi-Jent's office, will occasion no wonder. Possibly it is very absurd and reprehensible of a number of spirited young men to feel so acute ly on a question of national im. portance that they feel impelled to memorialize the President of their! country and, in order to make sure of his receiving their memorial, are ready to sit down night and day, in the sharp cold of a Peking! autumn, outside his house, until they can see him. But even those who do not think that so much enthusiasm may have its commendable side would not call it a crime. To the Peking militarists it is worse than that, it is an inconvenience and must be punished accordingty. How mild and beneficent s their rule, what anxiety it evinces to cultivate freedom of speech and a healthy spirit of democracy. And what is the President doing in this affair? These misguided young men clearly thought that if they could only get to him, they would be sure at least of an impartial hearing. Is it possible that he knows that this piece of rashness has resulted in months of confinement, untried, in the horrors of a Peking gaol?' And what impression does he think such indifferrence, on his part, real or assumed, is likely to create in China?
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.