'There can be' little question as to Governor Yen Hsi-shan's dislike for both Feng Vu-hsiang jand Chang Tso-lin. During the re course of republican h tory his political energy hi been expended in keeping Shansi separate state, free from direct control by any of the many feudal groupings which hoped to encompass it. During that entire period Governor Yen has been remarkably successful in warding off his enemies by astute polities, without participating to a measurable extent in the actual fighting and without paying too heavily in political support. His political strategy has been the best in China, but he was assisted by the geographical position of his province and by the fact that no one was willing to spend or risk much to get it as its value in revenue was too small to be of importanc Marshal Feng Vu-hsiang was the first of the tuchuns genuinely to seek the conquest of Shansi. To him it was always a highroad between the Turkestan to which he escaped in the many moments of failure and Peking, which he inevitably aspires to hold. In the course of the political events arising from this desire, Shansi definitely lost the Tatung region Jand the Suiyuan region; word, all of Shansi outside the Great Wall and whatever of it! iwas being tapped by the Peking-Suiyuan Railway ceased to be Shansi but became part of sorite other feudal map-making rangement, depending upon the control of power in Peking or in the provinces immediately adjoining Shansi. At the present time, Shensi, Honan and perhaps Suiyuan are held by Feng Yuhsiang; while Chihli, Tatung and and whatever of Mongolia is under Peking's control is held by Marshal Chang—Tso-lin. Governor Yen Hsi-shan_ finds himself therefore in a nutcracker. For months, he has played one of these groups against the other and has hoist-led the Nationalist flag to avoid before forced to admit adherence to Peking, but Marshal Feng Yuchsiang' and -Chang Tso-lin have both been insistent, upon 'a definite decision and upon Jdefinite opposition to the other} side.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.