Peking, Feb. 5.
The rank and file in Peking are much excited by the anticipation of war, Even the Chinese press is inclined to foresee a struggle between the Fengtien and Chihli forces in the vicinity of Peking in the immediate future. The ascuter politicians, however, see in the present situation only stalemate and are inclined to think that if a struggle 18 coming it will take both sides many months to prepare for There has been x marked lull in Wu Pei-fu's telegraphic assaults upon the Government and Chang Tso-lin, so long silent, has at last come to the support of his creation in Peking and, together with his good friend Lu Yung-hsiang, is busy issuing counter challenges as fast as the telegraph administration can carry them. A cabinet secretary yesterday remarked casually that three more telegrams had come in. The first of Chang's wires, like the first of Wu's created a sensation in the capital. The multiplicity of them, like the multiplicity of Wu's messages, has taken the edge off the sensation to such a degree that the native press no longer finds space for them.
Wo Pet-m's Wasrep Amucnirion, Wu Pei-fu accused the Liang cabinet of direct negotiations with the Japanese, with the negotiation of foreign loans and with other similar offences, which, if confirmed, would have given him as good a cause in a war against Peking and Peking's military supporters as he had against the Anfuites in the summer of 1920. Unhappily for Wu Pei-fu's cause it would appear that the reports which reached him from Peking were distorted and that he was led to exhaust his telegraphic ammunition upon a cloud bank.
The culmination of the Shantung negotiations is generally concede ed to be as satisfactory as anything. that China could possibly expect if it were not, it would be possible to prove that the instructions which led to that culmination were. sent from Peking five days before Liang is supposed to have endorsed a new policy with regard to the Shantung negotiations. There has been no loan, in the accepted sense, and the only Joan project mooted after Liang's assumption of office was the consolidation of the various hypothecations of the Salt surplus by the Consortium, a task which the Chinese banks interested have since undertaken on their own account.
Guang Tso-tin's UNDERGROUND Work.
Secure in the knowledge that Wu Pei-fu wasted his ammunition, 2
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.