Convinced of Chang Tso-lin's Downfall if He Fights Cantonese Makden, Nov, 22.
Mukden seénid to breathe more freely when it was learned "that Marshal Chang Tso-lin had decided that the time was not opportune for him to go to Poking to be installed as Chief Executive or President-of the Republic of China, as it was believed that if he did so he was simply going to his destruction, Not, of course, that there is any universal sentiment of _nffection cherished for the Marshal himself, but the disintegration of Manchuri which would follow would, it wu: apprehended, have dire results. for Mukden. Unfortunately, that fecling of relief hao not been sustained. People again are filled with gloomy forebodings as reports come to them of the military conference at Tientsin. These reports suggest the possibility of Ching Tso-lin being induced to take part in the struggle against the Cantonese, It goos without saying that the people are weary of war, whether Chang Ts0- gains another barren victory or suffers a reverse, and of the finaneial burdens which it imposes upon them, In the first place, it is remembered that disaster "invariably has overtaken the Marshal when his armies have stretched out, and it is feared that, no matter ow skilfully he may have made or may make his dispositions, he always is exposed to the danger of a section of his forees being induced to change their allegiance. This is a danger against which neither he nor any other militarist in China can insure, and it would be intoresting to speculate upon the probability of internal strife in China coming to an end as a result of the more or less latent willingness on the part of units composing the various armies to lay down their arms or turn them against. thei comrades,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.