July 30.
Cuose and reliable investigation tends to indicate that the propaganda campaign—of which papers in Japan have recently made mention—to spread -the seeds of Bolshevism in China is not by any means finding the ground too stony. That very large sums of money and that numerous very able propa-gaudists are being used in the work is certain, and it is also known that considerable headway is being made in such districts as Canton, Hankow, Tientsin, Peking, and in the western Provinces. All the tricks of the trade—which became so familiar to European nations during the war—are being employed and, of course, so long as money is forthcoming the agents of Russia will experience but little difficulty in securing native apostles willing and anxious to preach the gospel to their countrymen. While M. Joffe was in Shanghai recently, he had one or two conversations with Dr. Sun Yat-sen but it is, now thought that the Canton leader has discovered excellent reasons why his influence should be directed against the campaign, or, at least, why he should in no way lend his support to the movement. It is unfortunate that it still seems quite impossible to secure dependable information as to how the system is working in Russia itself but a very fair barometer—and one which a pebdple such as the Chinese may be relied upon to gauge fairly accurately—is the continued influx of Russian refugees to China and - their very evident determination to live on, even in extremely difficult conditions, in China or elsewhere rather than return to the country of their birth.
While the gentle plausibilities of the propagandist may thus to some extent be over-ridden, the important fact must not be overlooked that the soil for his work in several important districts of China is of a
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.