July 5.
Ir is indeed an excellent piece of news which comes from Peking to-day, that the Canton Provincial - Assembly has telegraphed to President Li Yuan-hung, proposing the abolition of the Canton Government in favour of the Central. That this was, from the time of Chang Tso-lin's overthrow and Mr. Hsu Shih-chang's resignation, the only sound and patriotic course to take, did not at one time imply any assurance that it would be followed. But a healthier atmosphere prevails in Cantyn since ithe expulsion of Dr. Sun Yat-sen and his myrmidons, of which change the message reported to-day is a welcome _first-fruits. Assuming, as we probably may, that the telegram was sent with General Chen Chiung-ming's knowledge and acquiescence, it is significant and important that the telegram comes from the Provincial Assembly, not from him. It is thus the people of the South who speak, and not any militarist; and General Chen's recent coup falls into place as the act of a chief of police restoring public order. And further, the "Reprod jiuced with permission of the copyright owne: telegram to President Li is an open recognition from a vital centre of the tremendous fact that there is no longer any earthly reason why anybody in China need fight anybody else. Gone is the illegal government of ex-President Hsu. The office held by President Li is purely an emergency one to last only until Parliament can put matters on a constitutional basis. He has even declined to accept any salary for his temporary duties. Everything is in a transitional state and it is for the nation, north, south, east and west, to say what shall be made of it.
Nevertheless the outlook is not wholly free from clouds. Peking itself appears to be too much in a hmry in some things, too, dilatory in others. With a quorum of the old Parliament inow assured, as we were told a week ago, and money found for its travelling expenses, it is surely a pity that it must delay another fortnight before assembling. So much play is thus given to the intrigues of the rats and foxes,'' who are clearly not idle. And, on the other hand, a good deal of circumspection would seem to be necessary in the abolition of the Tuchunate. Assuredly all China desires that the system' should go. But it cannot be dispelled by a stroke of the Presidential pencil with impunity, as the Shanghai Journal of Commerce pointed out in a striking article which we reproduced yesterday. During the past fortnight Tuchuns have been going down like ninepins—Chékiang, Chihli, Fukien, Anhui, Kiangsi, Honan, are all theoretically without Tuchuns and there-is no saying who may be the next to resign or be abolished. Actually we do not suppose that the powers of all the Tuchuns in question have been laid aside.. But the position is an uncertain one and without some clear idea of what authority is to be put in their place, there is, as the Shanghai Journal of Commerce said, no small danger that their troops, being left as sheep without a shepherd, will turn to looting. In the second place, Peking itself appears to be as unhealthy in some respects as ever it was. The old-time politicians do not fancy being left without a military protector or scapegoat. If their retention of office is to depend upon their own merits, they do not at all relish the prospective test. And so, as General
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.