One very important illustration of what unity would mean to China is being furnished by Kiangsu in relation to the cigarette tax, which for severa] weeks past it has proposed to introduce, Chekiang was the first province to think of this additional 20 per cent., and notwithstanding that, it was dead against an agreement into which the province had itself entered, it goes on in full force to-day. Moreover, from the point of view of provincial revenue it has been such a success that Honan and Hupeh have also adopted it, and only recently Kiangsu resolved that it might prove equally useful here. On the surface there is a certain amount of altruistic idealism about Kiangsu, and the announcement was accordingly made that the proceeds of the tax would go to education. Unhappily for the furtherance of this plan, the cigarette merchants of the province have few ideals and are, comparatively speaking, not altruistic, so at the end of last week they threatened to strike if the tax were imposed. It is here, after this somewhat lengthy introduction, that we see what it would mean if China were united. Peking, in the most unobtrusive way in the world, has resolved to take a hand in the matter, and as Kiangsu is one of the few provinces which still adheres to Peking, she listens, The cigarette dealers do not want the tax, 80, says Peking, defer its imposition so that they may have time to make due representations which might, perhaps, alter Nanking's judgment, Nanking has agreed to this, and now negotiations are proceeding which will no doubt end in the inevitable compromise. That is the advantage of having a province which possesses a Tuchun who belongs to the President's party, for he is amenable to the whisperings of his chief in Peking. If they all did that, China might progress a great deal. no matter what sort of a man was President. But as the others, Chekiang for example, have no concern with what the President wishes or orders, the position remains deplorable.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.