Why He May Not be Removed:
The Ideal Militarist for the Job: Writing on the Wall From "Rodney Gilbert, Peking, July 5.
While tae Peking ernment been inundating Ube press with apologies for the Hupeh mutinies, promises of preventive measures in future and denunciations of a dozen er more petty officers of the 2nd Division whose punishment is to be sop to public opinion, officialdom at large ig stubbornly resisting the general demand for the removal of Wang Chan-yuan, For this there are two reasons. The first is that Peking cannot appoint a successor without offending someone and alienating some military supporter. The second is that the Hupeh Tuchun's removal would establish the dangerous precedent of making the high militarists personally responsible for the afflictions which they and their subordinates visit upon the people, Tue Beau [pean or His Kino.
In a strictly physical sense Peking, of course, cannot remove Wang Chan-yuan from office nor instal a successor in Wuchang. With the concurrence of the milltary leaders of the various factions which pay lip service to this Government it can, however, deprive the Hupebh Tuchun of his charter of exploitation—excommunicate him as it were—and trust to his jealous enemies in and out of Hupeh to do the rest. If Wang Chan-yuan had committed some offence against the code of the Tuchun cult; if he had announced himself a popular champion; if he had suggested the reduction of Chang 'T'so-lin's troops or had denounced Tsao Kun for appropriating and denuding the Imperial family's timber lands the Eastern Tombs district; if he had instituted local self-government or permitted the provincial assembly to exercise contro] over the pTovincial finances, Peking would leap at the opportunity of removing him afforded by his present unpopularity and would have the support of every win in the north.
Wang Chan-yuan_ is, however, é: ue to Tuchun traditions, He has bled his province with a thoroust-. less almost worthy of Chang Chit. yao. He has refused to pay iris troops and has allowed his soldiery to collect their pay from the merchants; be has interfered with Salt, Revenues and has held the col-Iectorate up for a monthly bribe. He has remitted nothing to Peking but has set his fellow Tuchuns a handsome example by directing an incessant fire of demands for money upon the metropolis, He has flooded all central and north China with had currency turned out
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.