May 5.
Turse words from one of the worst poems Kipling ever wrote occur to the mind as the most appropriate commentary on the bulk 'Y Jof the news from north China. As our Peking correspondent warned us was probably the case, General Wu Pei-fu is not yet dead, he has merely been '"'killed'' for propaganda purposes, and from today's account of his troops' suc~- cess at Changsintien is very much alive. The same explanation may be assumed for the lurid description given by Chang Tso-lin in the interview reported yesterday by the Eastern News Agency, of the Chihli troops "sacking everywhere they go, thus torturing innocent citizens.'' And certainly the first extraordinary report, quoted by an impor-
Wednesday's encounter—differing diametrically from the same tant news fe in Peking, of agency's later account as from that of our correspondent—was propaganda-made. But we must not forget that Chang Tso-lin is on the same side of the line as the Peking Press Bureau, which has thus a keen personal interest' in enacting the role of Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah and prophesying smooth things concerning - Manchuria's overlord.
One interesting and quite probable statement is that the prisoners taken by the Fengtien army (there is nothing unlikely in their capturing some prisoners even if in retreat) are Honanese troops of the poorest quality. This fits in with the belief of those who have experience of General AVu Pei-fu's methods. They think that he has, hitherto, sent only the riff-raff of his men, probably Tsao Kun's troops, up to the front to amuse themselves by shooting off some ammunition and drawing that of the other side, while he himself lies back with a comparatively small force of picked men, awaiting a suitable time and place for delivering a blow—which would seem to have occurred at Changsintien.
Of course this is pure guessing. But it is a curious fact that no one at present appears to know for certain where General Wu Pei-fu really is, though he is reported' to have commanded in yesterday's attack on the Fengtien right sing. Moreover, the record of his fighting outside Peking in 1920 and in Hupeh last year, suggests that when he and his army mean business, they do not confine themselves to sitting on a hillside burning cartridges. We are not "'backing'' General Wu Pei-fu either as vanquisher-to-be or saviour-elect of China. We only wish to emphasize that all the lurid battle stories that glitter from Chang Tso-lin's side of the' Jine are not to be taken for the gold of unalloyed truth. With the recollection now of several periods of civil war in China, it is difficult to find any parallel for the amazing flood of sheer falsehoods that have been poured out in the north during the past week. The fact of the matter probably was that General Wu Pei-fu had not completed his dispositions and, having no obsequious Press Bureau at his service, was obliged to leave all the advantage of paper battles to "his adversary. When it comes to real fighting, the advantage appears less obvious.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.