The long expected clash has arri ved in North China, Following on a Mandate cashiering General Wu Pei-fu for his avowed determination to march on Peking and expel the Anfu Club and pro-Japanese clique, troops were sent against Wu, whose headquarters are at Paotingfu.
Chang Ts lin appears to be supporting Wu and has moved some of his Fengt n troops close to Tientsin.
Foreign correspondents generally agree that the Anfu troops are unwilling to fight. Public opinion is ove ichetmingly against Anfu.
On Sunday last Gen. Li Benn of Nanking (a Wu Pei-fu man) moved troops to Quinsan and cut the railway. Gen. Lu Yung-hsiang, of Ché- Kiang, and Miliary Commissioner of Sungkiang and Shanghai, replied by ending troops to Wongdw on the S.X.R. Next day an agreement was reached and! the troops were recalled on both sides. It appears probable that the Fangtze will be neutralized as in 1900.
The leading articles have in th main been. preserved, as although the comments might sometimes be reversed} in. the light of subsequent events, the articles as a whole reflect the feelings of the time.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.