Feb. 28.
Tue Chinese ship of state is like a bark labouring in a troubled sea. There is an ominous reaking of cordage and groaning of timbers that betokens an unusual degree of danger. The trouble seems to be that the vessel cannot get sufficient ''way'' on to enable her to answer her helm. The government is like the officers of a derelict who have abandoned all effort to steer towards a desired haven and are merely clinging to the hull hoping that they wil not founder and that, by some lucky chance, a favouring wind may arise and carry then through the dangerous shoal water in which they now find themselves. What lies ahead of them no man knows; the most they can hope for is to prolong their existence some weeks or maybe even months if fortune favours them and then to escape from the wreck with what salvage they may be able to recover. In other words, the present cabinet seems tottering to its fall and an alternative government is not visible on the horizon of Chinese politics.
Dr. Wellington Koo cables from London that the second meeting of the League of Nations is shortly to assemble and that he is certain to be asked what progress his country is making towards unity, and he does not know how he is to answer. Will not the Government make an effort to conciliate the South that he may have an answer to give to the representatives of the nations and be able to speak with the enemy in the gate? But, alas! the South, as our correspondent, writing from Canton, shows, is in no mood to listen to conciliation. Peking is to the present rulers of south China the symbol of hopeless retrogression. It is simply waste of time to talk to them of union with the North. The present
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.