The assurance with which he makes any statement to the public cut in the name of Z Cen' Mutual Aid Society which, it was claimed, had been established by leading merchants and officials to further a movement for ths must have struck those who have|'isbandment of local troops. Inquiries at the instance of some of the alleged followed the career of Dr. Sun Yat-sen. On the face of things his announcements at times seem hardly to be within the probabilities, but he gives them out in a manner which appears to admit of no contradiction. This peculiar faculty of his is well illustrated in an interview he has just given to a representative of the Hongkong Telegraph" dealing with his fight against General Chen Chiung-ming. The most striking part deals with the encounter between Dr. Sun's gunboats and the Macao Forts. It ought to be mentioned that a foreign observer noted that the gunboats showed practically no fire organization and did little damage to the forts, while on the other hand the forts repeatedly hit the gunboats, but because of defective ammunition the hits registered were not specially serious. The forts, however, seemed to hava the better of the encounter. Dr. Sun. told the interviewer that as a result of the gunboats' bombardment the forts had been deserted, and that the villagers, at the very start of the bombardment, had attacked in the rear and captured them. These same villagers were now holding the forts for him (Dr. Sun). But the same night there was another exchange shots in the vicinity of the forts, and the situation was described as "practically unchanged." One fears that in this case Dr. Sun's assurance was misplaced and that the village stalwarts preferred the quiet of their hamlets to too close an acquaintance with guns whose target practice seemed to be particularly good.
The Neglected Politician In the police report for June in this week's Municipal Gazette, the Commissioner of Police has some very interesting remarks on the complete lack of public interest shown by the general public in the activities of local politicians, The total membership of the societies concerned, Mr. McEuen says, is less than a hundred and the press reports which ascribe to them strength and importance are simply untrue.
Yor instance, there were not more than 200 coolies and students present at the anti-Portuguese meeting on June 25 which the following day was described m_the press as a large gathering "i 4,500 people. In another case a report in the press alleged that over persons met in No. 9 Mei Lung Lee, Shantung Road, on Juno 11 and pledge ed themselves not to recognize President Li Yuan-hung on the ground that his assumption of the presidency was illegsi, and passed a resolution calling upon the Southern Government to take up th" question of the shooting of Chinese at Macao. Ingutries showed that no formal meeting took place at that address on the date "n question, and the alleged account of the proceedings published in the papers had been taken from an vasigned report received by the Lien Yah News Agency. Another instance Sgitators is afforded in a circular sent the ingenuous propaganda of these promoters showed that no such society ever existed.
One wonders whether some of the same sort of magnification may not have been applied in the case of the Seamen's Union which was to open a branch here three weeks ago, but has still to hold its inaugural meeting owing, it is alleged, to its inability to get a hall big enough to hold all the members, Or might it be perhaps—to get enough mom-bers to fill any kind of hall?
Litvinoff's Trap awakens many misgivings.
The news from The Hague to-day Litvinoff says that he will ask Moscow whether it will recognize Russia's debts and compensate foreigners for property sequestrated "provided that the terms for the payment of the debts and compensation were left for agreement between the Russian Government and the persons concerned within two years." And the other delegates unanimously declare that "the loyal carrying out" of such a scheme by Moscow ''would help to create a favourable atmosphere for negotiation." Unless they mean to wait the two years to see what Moscow does, before negotiate ing, a more fatuous resolution could hardly be imagined. Everything depends on the loyalty of the carrying out of the agreement, and not one single circumstance can be recalled in all the Bolsheviks' record to justify the slightest expectation that they would be loyal to any promise of any kind. Observe also the two years' grace before Moscow is to be expected to pay and the stipulation that it shall be permitted to deal with claimants privately. M. Litvinoff's scheme is a transparent trap. What he is really after is to get those foreign credits for the Soviet and as the Entente Governments would then, according to his scheme, have signed away their right to help their nationals in pressing their claims, the latter would have to whistle for their money. Besides, once the foreiga credits were got, in two years the Soviet might hope to be ina position to renew their "definitive {relentless war on capitalism in all lands," The worst of it is that the mere fact of discussion with, the Soviet implies a tacit assumption that its word may be taken to mean what it says—which it most emphatically can not. There will be no safety against Bolshevik cunning till the delegates are home again.
Pexinc, July 17.—Mr. Tang Ti, a senator from Kiangsi, interviewing President Li Yuan-hung yesterday asked: (1) when Civil-Governor Hsieh Yuan-han will take up his post, (2) when would General Tsai Cheng-hsun__ abandon military operations in Kiangsi and (3) whether General Wu Pei-fu intended to go to Kiangsi.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.