Politicians at the Old Game From Rodney Gilbert Peking, July 28.
The Anfu Club is a thing of the past. The optimists would like us to believe that this is synonymous with saying that China's internal troubles are all in the past. Unfortunately it is impossible for anyone accustomed to reading the political omens in Peking to believe this. There are some who say that it is only the beginning of reform and that the measures which remain to be taken before China can boast of a clean slate will have to be much more severe and will stir the nation much more deeply than Wu Pei-fu's recent destruction of Tuan Chi-jui's organization in the capital.
Before the fighting commenced the writer predicted that if Wu Pei-fu were victorious his lukewarm supporters who withheld their approbation of his policies until the defeat of Tuan Chi-jui's Ting Kuo army was practically insured, would make it their first business to eliminate Wu's influence from the subsequent, political readjustment. Peace in the North is scarcely restored, there are still bands of the Frontier Defence army at large under arms, Peking is still locked within its gates as a precaution against organized attacks by bands of defeated soldiery, but the high and are already busy belittling the mighty ones in the official caste
commander of the ard Division whose initiative and courage made the campaign against the Anfuites possible and whose announced policies won for his side the strongest endorsement from the Chinese people which any movement has enjoyed since the revolution.
'Tae Pourricrans' Fear:
The politicians naturally fear Wu Pei-fu. The vacillating, timorous Tuchuns who have nursed their armies at home these three years while the Anfu Club made sport 1 of government in Peking and fat-tarism and inaugurate a new era _tened on the proceeds of unpatriotic loans, are naturally jealous of him. His popularity and the hold which his name has taken upon {the imaginations of the Chinese people irritate them, and the coming political adjustments are awaited with as much anxiety in Peking as was the outcome of the recent battles, The optimists who insist that China already has a clean slate deplore the gossip about possible friction between Wu and Chang Tso-lin and complain that discussion of this topic will breed suspicion where none exists. The inful trath is, nevertheless, that suspicion already exists and' that it is growing. Two days ago in Tientsin Chang Tso-lin remarked in the course of an interview that lie had had no dealings with Wu Pei-fu, that he had dealt solely with Tsao Kun, that Wu Pei-fu was only a division commander and therefore could not be consulted on political questions, Nothing could be more significant. This statement virtually amounts to a political declaration of war against Wu Pei-fu. It means that Chang Tso-lin is determined to eliminate him from public affairs during the readjustment and that he is going to insist upon dealing with Tsao Kun, wi measure he had, of course, taken accurately years ago. In this attitude the majority of Tuchuns and other devotees of the old military cult will almost certainly concur, and Chang Tso-lin will not be in Peking a week before he will have organized a close and exclusive circle of the reactionaries, the high priests of tuchunism, to protect the traditions and practices which made the Anfu Club possible, Tae Heart or THe Peoria.
It need not be repeated that Wu Pei-fu's movement Was popular. Every line that was written about it proved it amply. But the stamp of popular approval was not put upon this rebellion against the Anfuites because the people were anxious to replace one set of military barons with another, but because they believed Wu Pei-fu when he said he was fighting do away with China's bogus mil
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.