The situation in Peking from the purely political point of view seems to become interesting again. General Chin Yun-ping, the Pre. mier, promises us a number of important reforms, all of which we are ready to welcome, but unfortunately he is not the best man to make these promises because he does not come before his public in the spotless raiment of the reformer. When we reach an event like the present we have got to look at the men and the facts. In doing so we find that the erstwhile great Tuan Chi-jui had two principal henchmen, Chin Yun-peng, the present Premier, and Little Hsu, the cabinet-breaker, the latter undoubtedly the stronger man. It was with the hope of breaking Chin that Little Hsu allowed him to become Premier, because once Chin had been Premier and was thereafter broken, Little Hsu would be supreme under Tuan. The scheme very nearly worked, and at one time things were so bad for Chin that he tendered his resignation. But then Wu Pei-fu appeared on the scene—he must have been a regular Bolshevist to Tuan and Little Hsu, if not to others—and the long and short of it is that Chin Yun-peng is established again in the Premiership with a batch of first-rate reforms to offer the nation.
But has he recanted: can we believe in his conversion to anything but lip-service to these reforms until he gives a sign? Frankly we are nod prepared to do so, notwithstanding his platform. He has got to do something more than to announce his policy. We, however, are ready and happy to recognize one point in his favour. He was distinctly restive and unhappy under his late domination, and though this condition was primarily due to Little Hsu's strength, there is the chance that in his veins he felt the spirit of reform stirring. He has now to show it.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.