The new civil governor kindly gave me an interview a day or two ago and talked © over provincial matters with me quite freely. He has taken up his quarters in the old Futai's yamen, which has always been associated with the chief ruler of the province. But since the Revolution, this ig the first time that a civil governor has __resided there unless he has also been acting as the '"'Tutuh," '"Tuchun" or whatever title may have belonged to the chief military official. That is to say, until now, the chief official in the province has been regarded as the military and not a civil officer. I at once congratulated Mr.'Lin on the step he had taken in putting into effect the old order "Wen, Wu" (Civil, military") instead. of the new "Wu, wen." In reply he pointed out to me that in the announcement of his appointment to the office by the southern government, the '"'Shen-chang" (Civil governor) took pre-cadence of the Commander-in-chief. Of course, I immediately asked whether he recognized the appointment of the southern government. He quite openly stated that Hunan was now acting in concert with the South at Canton. "But" I said "Surely Hunan is not going to ally itself with the Anfu party of which Chang Chin-yao was so distinguished an ornament?" "No; we are not. Neither is the civil governor of Canton, Mr. Ch'en. We are both opposed to any alliance with them." "Are you in any sort of alliance with the Peking govern-
Both Mr. Lin and a little later Gen. Chao whom I also interviewed said without hesitation that they were not themselves preparing any attack on any other province, and knew of no attack being prepared against Hunan. On the question of finance, there was agreement in the answers of these two chiefs that the income of the province did not equal its _expenditure. When I asked how much it was thought Chang Chin-yao took out of the province, Mr. Lin put the figure into the tens of millions of dollars. When I went on to show that as no one in this most recent reform would be taking money away in that fashion and that I could not understand how the income of such a wealthy province as Hunan was found insufficient for its expenses, I was assured that that very point was being investigated. "How many soldiers do you estimate you are supporting at present?' 50,000" *Do you need that number?" "Not
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.