No feature of the recent Anfu debacle in the North is exciting more comment than the complete failure of the policy of the Japanese military party in China. There 1s no use disguising the fact that nearly. every foreigner and every patriotic Chinese when: one meets is openly rejoicing over the evident discomfiture of the Japanese agents in this country, and that it is also eliciting frank expressions of satisfaction from many reputable Japanese resident in China.
The complete collapse of the iniquitous politico-military organization built up in Peking does not enhance Japan's power or prestige in China in the immediate present, but just as the fall of the Anfu Club gives China an opportunity to start a fresh page in her history, so is the Japanese Governmend in a position to say "I told you so" to the militarists and shape a new policy which will command the respect of other Powers and eventually inspire some confidence in the Chinese people, Japanese Wo See Ir Wet.
There cannot be any doubt that while the average Japanese, jealous of his country's international standing, is chagrined by the position in which the Anfu collapse puts the Japanese in China and deplores Japan's humiliation, a very big proportion of the Japanese people will be as happy as the Chinese are to see their militarists fail so ignominiously in their Teutonic policies. If the Japanese people have any understanding at all of cause and effect in politics they will hold the militarists responsible for Japan's loss of favour and face on the Asiatic mainland, which began with the boycott and has ended with the victory of Wu Pei-fu's little army over the divisions and mixed brigades upon which so much Japanese money has been spent and upon which Japanese advisers and drillmasters have lavished their hest attentions.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.