If the truth were really to be told, war news might well be omitted except to announce that anew war had started and some time later that it is all over and that the scene is not too much altered. During the 1911 and 1913 Revolutions, I am told, the. reporters had a sporting chance of reporting some real fighting, but since then it has been much a matter of getting copy from headquarters. During the famous Kiangsu-Chekiang wars of Chih Hsieh-yuan and Lu Yung-hsiang, it was possible to knew how to keep their secrets and it was as easy to earn of a Chih victory from a Lu lieutenant as it was to learn all the Lu plans from ae retary. But now. adays, both sides" have lear ed the art of propaganda as well as the science of aeronautics and bomb throwing and all the rest of it. The results are most astonishing, particularly in the vernacular press, in which one sees. vast areas of white space, where the censor's pencils marched across the proof sheets. A headline may indicate what the story might have been, but there is no story, As one gazes at the white ace, one wonders: Was it a victory or a defeat? How many people were killed? Which side killed them? But then it doe vot really matter. War appel to be crucible that is-making something different of the Chinese people, for better or for wor Last year, Nanking had to have all sorts of Allies in its war. This year, Nanking is fighting it all alone, against all the old Allies. That is a most interesting development, for because of the censorship, none of us know what it really means. Has Nanking's little model army and the Old First Division gained such strength and such confidence that it undertakes to fight this great war all by itself? And can the Cantoness armies drive back the Kuangsi troops and the Communists without the speedy movements of troops from Hankow to Canton and from Pukow to Wuchow?
What has happened during the past six months to give them such confidence? Nankine's censor has erred there, for if we knew, we all might also have more confidence in the situation.
But we do not know. We can only gaze at the conger's great white spaces. Similarly we used to know that Feng Vu-hsiang and Yen Hsi-shan hated each other; and now we are told that they are warm friends dnd allies, T used to listen to lengthy descriptions by foreigners of the prison camp in which Feng Yuhsiang was held near Taiyuanfu, But now Feng Vu-hsiang is leading a huge force as a subordinate of Yen Hsi-shan, fut what must puzzle the reader as much as it deco the so-called experts is what exactly is the position of Chang Haueh-Luang. Mr. Putnam Weale recently announced that the Young Marshal was sending a huge rmy to assist Shansi and Nanking countered with information that the Manchurian appointe to ministerial positions had rived in Nanking and had aken up their posts. Then it announced in Peking that Sun Chuan-fang is at Chengchow to assist Yen Hsi-shan, whereupon Nanking issues orders to the Manchurian navy to search vessels for arms. Meanwhile, no press bureau seems to have been established in Mukden and no Manchurian spokesman says anything. Therefore, we really don't know anything much except that Mr. Lo Wen-kan did not accept the Ministry of Finance but beat it back to Mukden from Peking and that Mr, Wellington Koo was safely in Shanghai visiting his mother as a private person. If
king, at any rate, nothing but Manchur not helping Nan-silence emanates from its steppes.
But what makes it' all: more interesting is the fact that all sides are writing voluminous reports to the League of Nations on the barbarities of the war. Exactly what,"the League of Nations has to do with a civil war, it is difficult to know, except that perhaps this is not exactly a civil war. Can it be med that the Northerners. feel that they are fighting
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.