Mar, 14, Recent' proceedings in the 'Mixed Court, when a nuntber of leaders in the agitation which led to the strike at the Japanese mills some weeks ago, were heavily fined, of in lieu of payment, sentenced to six months' imprisonment, must have called: our read-jets' attention to the spread of Bolshevist or, if the term is preferred, Communist, principles in China. Reports from our correspondents show that a very active propaganda is being carried "on in every part of, the country: reaching even to remote villages. Those who know China well look on the future with considerable misgiving. A movement of this kind is rarely checked by imposing " term of mild imprisonment on its leaders. They are much more likely to gain prestige with their followers for having suffered for the cause than to be red from further action by a perted-of enforced retirement in fairly comfortable surroundings.
It must be confessed that China provides: a soil peculiarly fitted for the reception of the seed of the doctrine of spoil tion, It is now an aphorism that "Bolshevism is a germ that attacks defeated nations." We know how true that was in the case of Russia, She was able to put a larger number of soldi ers in the field than all the rest of the allies put together, But her lines of communication were inadequate, "her arsenals deficient and her commissariat incomplete, so "that the very magnitude of her armies broke down the military machine by their own weight. The obstinate valour of the soldiers, opposed toa well led and perfectly equipped enemy, imposed on them enormous losses and exposed them to sufferings beyond the power of endurance, It seemed to the rank and file that they were warring not so much against, flesh and blood against' an adverse and ini-placable fate. At last, when heart and hope were lost, they termed on the rulers who appeared to be the ensue of all their miseries and' inflicted on them diabolical cruelties to compensate for the agonies they had themselves suffered in the trenches during the bitter Russian winter China is not at war with any foreign Power. Her wars are of the home-made variety and her soldiers take care that they neither suffer themselves nor impose any very acute sufferings on their friends, the enemy. They billet themselves in the most comfortable houses and compel their hosts to provide them with all things needful for their comfort, But the incessant feuds of the military are wear ing the people cwt. The soldiers fare so busy fighting each other or watching their rivals to see that they do not steal a march jon them, that they have no time to devote to the suppression of the brigandage that embitters the lot of the unarmed population. Thus it comes to pass that, in places, a robber chief usurps the functions of government and, with his merry men, a euphemism for a set of unhanged loafers, tyrannizes the countryside. He levies taxes on the land or its produce and blackmails those who are rich enough to be fleeced. And, if the, truth must be told, he is only q little more rapacious than the legitimate official upon whose rights he has encroached. He also levies unauthorized taxes and makes wanton demands for contributions to his exchequer. The wenknesg of the Central Govern-." ment is such that each man placed in a position of power: ix 'a law unto himself. "There are
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.