Chang Tso-lin left Peking on! December. 2 and the succeeding Perum 24 hours were crammed with rumours which are still being eireulated. His departure was so hurried that this was inevitable. Most of his personal staff were either dining] Into entertaining trends to theatre an hour or so before Fo decided to leave and most of them were hard put to it to get their things together in time for the four o'clock train to Tientsin, The day before Chang Tso-lin departed, members of the staff informed the writer that they expected to remain in Peking for at least a fortnight. Notwithstanding the Marshal's desire to return to Mukden, they said, he would have to stay here until the question arising out of the adjust~ it of the military "situation had foreign advisers it napping, One them, who spoke to the writer at nine o'clock the previous evening about an appointment for an inter-with the Marshal, was actually' left behind.
Too Much Polities Chang Tso-lin himself entertained a dinner party until the late hours. It has ben his rule for several years ast to devote $100,000 to the poor of Peking, and the' local Welfare Committee, in whose hands the distribution of the bounty has devolved, together with a few members of the, International Famine Relief Commission, were his guests, To this intimate circle of friends, the Marshal revealed not the slightest hint that his departure was night.
However, he expressed himself as: dissatisfied withthe trond of events sin he arrived in Peking. "There too many political parties here,"
id, They have been, pestering arrived. Polities, as you know, are not in my line, and Tam anxious to return to my own sad quarters, where these things] will not worry me." Chang Tso-liz created a very favourable impression at this dinner. He spoke quite frankly about the war, saying did not consider he should adopt any attitude of self-congratulation in connexion therewith. "It was altogether unnecessary, and I realized it from the first. What has been the result? Nothing at all, except the augmentation of the misery of thousands of people. I take no pride at all in the achievement."
The Question of Wu Pei-fu In these remarks, allowing of course for the public modesty of the Mukden warlord, one might trace the disappointment that Chang Tso-lin felt after a week or two in conference with Tuan Chi-jui. It is not. on all the points brought fairly established that the two did
up for discussion. Although Chang 'Teo-lin has always emphasized that the political working out of his over throw of the Chihli regime rested with the Anfu leader, yet he had decided opinions about' "one or two subjects. One was the 'Wu Pei-tu's place in the things. A month ago, 'Tuan Chi-jui \bsolutely opposed to the of harsh measures against the Chibli warlord, but added that he was as yet a private citizen, and intended to have nothing to do' with the development of military opera-ions against the Chihli party.
"That is Chang Tso-lin's busi he said. "When the military movements are over, then I automatically come out to help in the re-shaping of China's political des-on the mil imina-He' said Chang Tso-in was best tion of the Loyang General, and although he (Tuan Chi-jui) was not in agreement with this treatment, yet, being a private citizen, it was not his business to interfere with that plan, out of some of the Yangtze provinees a far more dangerous ém-imperia than ever Canton constituted. So Tuan has been ad~ vocating conciliation with the Loyang. General. He is even reported to hold the opinion that We Pei-fa should be asked to take a responsible position in the new China. He mental in breaking up the party in 1920, and he thinks that there is room in China for such 2 man to play his part in the unification of the country; that, in fact, uniffeation depends upon him as much as upon any other man. Chang Tso-lin and Wu Pei-tu jeourse have: an old grudge, which some people say will never be eradicated.
Be that as it may, from Wu Pei fa's point of view, the healing of {the breach should not be a difficult]
especially now that his ire to Mukden, wh Jof the Manchurian pi requires is a square deal from Peking, Wu Pei-fu did not quibble about Chang's position in Mukden even when he was in Tientsin; mind was absorbed in antipathy toward Feng Vu-hsiang.
The Sphinx of Peking Feng is the crux of the whole! situation, as least for the present, (To-morrow of course in thi ching atmosphere Sun Yat-sen might treat us to another bombshell). Foreigners don't understand him, which is natural, seeing that he is a Chinese. But' the point is that the Chinese don't understand, him, He has. adopted the roles of Warwick and a Cromwell with such a disregard. for the principles} that generally guide Chinese conduct that the Chinese are coming to consider him as a stranger within their Now he is in the Western Fills, sulking, -Acbilleslike, in his retreat. He is said to have threaten-fed to shoot anybody that approaches him, Needless to say, nobody has ut him to the test, reports of visits of members of Chang Tso-lin's staff to the contrary notwithstanding. He has been left to himself, but is not the hermit he would _have other people suppose. He is in the closest touch with his senior officers, and has even paid a personal visit to hhis headquarters at Nanyuan, with which place he is now connected by telephone. Moreover, his officers have not relaxed their efforts to recruit more soldiers for the so-coll-army, and responsible! authorities now estimate that Feng] /Yu-hsiang could rely on at least! 60,000 men, who are all in or around Peking.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.