With Shantung: in this state behind him, Sun Chuan-fang cannot contemplate an advance, Chang Chung-chang's army in the rear is not only wsoless as a reserve force Dut, at a critical moment, might be positive menace. It is commonly remarked among Shantung officials that if Chen Tino-yuan's Anhui troops had got what they considered square deal from the Nationalists, thousands of Chang Chung-chang's officers and men would have gone over to the enemy long ago. If the only reliable soldiers in the province of Shi g's men, were to advance once. more to the Yangtze, there would now be no one at home to cope with the bandits, the Ta Tao Hui (Big Sword Society) and the Hung Chiang Hui (Red Spear Society). This is all clear enough and. is probably as well understood Shanghai as in Peking, or the Nationalists, who are at their low-fest ebb in a military way, would be very nervous about their tenure of Nanking, may not be so well understood, however, that Chu, Vu-pu's maladministration of "Chibi" makes it almost as dificult for the Fengtien armies to lengthen their line. of communications on the Kin-Han railway as Chang Chung-chang's maladministration of—Shantung makes Sun's advance junto Kiangsu, This, however, is true and is recognized here as such a severe Heap that almost no mater preparations for a campaign upon which the Generalissimo's heart is set have yet been made in spite of all the conferences and the optimism tie publicity.
From Paotingfu well into Honan the railway runs. through country in which the Red Spears are ai-ady a real power, genuinely friendly to no militarist and held in restraint by the consideration that the Fengtien troops are. still hold in big "compact groups places like Paoting and' Shihe! chuang from which they could move into any district with devas force if arising against the provi cial administration were attempted. If these troops were strung out on fan attenuated Tine of communica tions with the main body in Honan seriously engaged with Feng Yuhsiang, there is no doubt that the secret societies in western Chinli would boil over in a formidable rebellion and that they might interfere disastrously with _comnuunications between Peking and the fighting forces at the front. This too is a situation which Chu Vu-pu would have neither the capacity nor ea
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.