Dec. 4.
The asseverations of General Feng Vu-hsiang and his friends that he intends to retire into private life and will not again disturb the political life: of Peking deceive no one. The assertions of Chinese officials, quoted by Reuter though not named, that Marshal Tuan and Marshal Chang now think the position in the capital secure enough for the latter to return to Manchuria, bring no comfort. The private information, pointing to another coup as imminent-probable, which drove the Ching Emperor to take refuge in the Japanese Legation la: Saturday, is now public property and the fears of the Manchu household are shared by all For all practical purposes the blow hes fallen. The plain fact is that Marshal Chang Tso-lin fled to Tientsin, because he was not safe from Feng Vu-hsiang, who was too strong for him. This. is no time of year for fighting in the regions of the capital. It may be merely as in 44 game of chess, as so often in Chinese battles, the arraying of 80 many troops on the one side' against so many on the other, and, according to rule, the interior party accepting defeat. But even if matters come to an open conflict along the 'Tientsin, railway, it is not at all certain that' Chang could much as Hold his own. That he can recapture the capital impossible. Thus in Peking, al though Marshal Tuan Chi-jui is on the throne, Feng Vu-hsiang remains the dictator: and because all that Peking knows of Feng is that it distrusts him, it also fears him greatly.
What are we to expect now of Feng Vu-hsiang? If indeed he destroyed the President he had helped to make and ruined his colleague whose hands were tied, only to bring peace in China, a purpose so high that it worth any sacrifice of reputation, that certainly cannot be said' of his present attitude. If he really meant to resign and retire into private life, why did he not do #0? Why has he been recruiting additional troops and secretly visiting his garrison in Nanyuan? Why, indeed, has Chang Tso-lin fled and taken his troops with him? One possible theory of Feng's schemes is that, having now at last got Marshal Tuan in Peking, he hopes to keep him there and use him as a catspaw. It will be remembered how, after the first coup, Feng Vu-hsiang kept entreating Tuan to come to Peking and take charge of affairs. because the old Marshal's prestige in the country was so great that evers~ one might be expected to accept him. But Tuen steadily refused to come until he was sure of Chang fse-lin's support. Now indeed the leaders throughout China have accepted Tuan and the only rival to Feng's ascendaney was Chang Tso-lin, Tt was a duumvivate, and Feng and his friends out in the cold. Yet still Feng remained too powerful to be ignored. It is notorious that his' resignations were refused by Tuan and Chang because they dared rot accept, while they, had nothing to offer him that he would be likely to take. In this battle of purposes Chang has momentarily been defeated. But still one docs not, somehow, see Tuan allowing himself to be made a catspaw; and if he did, there is the Anfu party, whose power, though of a different kind, even Ferg Yuhsiang's Tronsides could not afford to despise. Alternatively, one remembers thet Dr. Sun Yat-sen ts on his way to Peking; and it may be that General Feng thinks of turning out Marshal Tuan also, before the Anfu party recover too much strength, and making Sun President. But we cannot iniagine that the provineial leaders would think for: a moment of accepting the man who is repudiated by the best of his fellow provincials and supported only by the "Red" wing of the Kuomintang and his Moscow patron:
All things considered, it is a good thing in the long run that Chang has had to flee; and we say that with no personal feeling against him, but merely that any government he night have helped to form would have been nothing but a transient combination of leaders whose policy and position are wholly superficial, due to the possession of arms, not to any fundamental connexion with the spirit and will of China herself. Around Peking the split is now complete. 'Tuan cannot accept Feng, Chang is utterly his enemy, so much 80 that it is even on' the cards may see Wu Pei-fu combining with his old foe against Feng. And with the breaking up of the Peking triumvirate follows the dissolution of the apparent unity of provincial deaders. All the plans with which the war began September have come to naught. They have failed in Kiangsu, they have failed in Peking." There is nothing anywhere of substance "or the slightest claim to legality. That Feng reigns in Peking means "nothing whatever unleds "he "can get money and recognition, and we hardly irangine, he. will. get either. The
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.