The foreign attitude towards the new regime in Kuangtung is a great deal more tolerant and charitable than anyone in the north would suspect. The attitude of the Consular Body apparently is that there is a fair chance of much good coming from the present situation, that interference and coercion will not help at all, and that the Cantonese should be given a chance to show what they can do.
One merchant who is in fairly close touch with both the official and commercial classes said: "All we hope for and all the Cantonese people hope for is that thay keep the bandits in order and keep communications open. I have faith in Chen Chiung-ming. He is making headway along the right lines and I am sure that, if. the political leaders support him, Kuangtung will be an_ excellent commercial field. But if they don't have senso enough to keep within their own province~if they go setting up governments and making war, it's Tue Customs Suneivs Question.
The foreign attitude in the north towards releasing to Canton a proportionate share of the Customs surplus, is that it would be_perpetuating a bad precedent. It is felt in Peking that the release of a share of the surplus to Canton on the last occasion was an error. Tf such divisions of the spoils are made every time they are asked for, it is feared that, in every district where there is a Customs House. some local official or local bandit will seize the community, declare his independence, appoint himself a government and demand a proportion of the local revenues.
In Shameen a slightly more liberal attitude is taken. There are certain expenditures, such as that appropriated for conservancy, which should come out of the surnlus—if there is going to be any. There is some doubt, it would appear, about the surplus since the silver exchange is falling so materially; so it is suggested that the accumulated surplus, which may amount to several million dollars, should be converted into a kind of trust fund and expended under supervision for certain purposes beneficial to Kuangtung.
This, of course, is not what the Military Government wants. The administrative directors of the Military Government want in the first place the "face"? which a share in the Customs surplus gives them. Tt means partial recognition by the Powers concerned. They want to appoint Commissioner—Wilson Deputy Inspector General under Sir Francis Aglen—more face.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.