Christianity Not Disassociated with Loot: Dollars and Diplomacy Whatever may be the motives of sneval Feng in occupying the capital with his troops of-the 1th Division, it is safe to say that it is not calculated to reassure thy Peaceful citizens and owners of portable property in the capital, writes Mr.-J..0. P. Bland: inthe "Sunday Times." They Know. t0, well, from bitter experience, what the presence of a large number of Jarmed men in their midst eventually entails, and it is fairly certain that, fs usual on such occasions, a rapid removal of valuables to the Legation, Quarter, as a place of refuge, would {follow immediately upon the shutting of the city gates, General Feng's troops have the reputation of being particularly well pined, and it andy even be that the'
Shih-kai's picked troops of the 8rd Division, who looted the capital and rehed out with their. booty in March, 1912. Te would be, difficult convince' the sorely Surghers of Peking that th no cause for alarm in widely the "Christian" proclaim that his ingood and that he wants to stop the war. att In the absence of further informa tion concerning the recent, relations between General Feng and: Marshal Wu Peiefu, and regarding the situation in the light: of Chinese history, ancient and modern, it would appear to be probable that Feng is merely following the usual practice of subordinate commanders and changing sides at a critical moment. The struggle for supreme power, which has been waged throughout the country between various constantly hanging groups of mandarins since dollars. Over and over age ave seen dod their leaders trans vices and changing as the result of cent ments in cash, 'The only certainty in the whole confused situation is, that' as soon fas any Tuchun or military commander becomes strong enough to threaten to dominate the rest, new Jcombinatigns* will speedily be form-Jed against him, and these will in-elude many of those who were formerly his supporters and friends, On the face of it, it would seem probable either that General Feng is making a bid for power on his own account, or that means have been found to convince him that it ig inadvisable that Chang Tso-lin should suffer def fof Marshal hitherto been a supporter of that party does, not necessarily preclude such a hypothesis If it be true, as reported by Reuter, that he has called a conference, with a view to stopping the war, ign of vantage, he has taken th authority out of th of his immediate chief. As a preliminary to peaceful negotiations, sich a coup can scarcely be regarded #4 auspicious.
But, in any event, it may safely [be predicted that whatever fighting there may be in and found the capital will be waged with dollars and diplomacy. rather than with horse, foot, and artillery, and that all concerned will be careful not to invade or disturb the precincts of the Legation Quarter. is waiting on the actions of Sun Yat-sen and that if the latter la agreeable to helping him in the Yangtsze region, the two will go to Maiden together to make their plans. di, an ins omit of the Third Kiangsu Army Divi sion, is reported to have' sent an agent to Shanghai to purchase Narge quantity of arms and. munition, Admiral Tu Shi
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.