Dec. 31, Muci importance belongs to yesterday's report that the Kuomintang Government had arranged with Marshal Wu Pei-fu's generals in Honan to resume, through traffic on the Peking-Hankow railway as far as Chengchow. The latter city lies just south of the Yellow River, two-thirds of the total distance through Honan from the southern border, and is the junction for the Lung-Hai railway. What! bearing this arrangement has on the military situation in Honan it is dificult to see. We do not pretend to understand the tenuous and fluctuating allegiances of the military leaders in Honan. But the Kuomintang Government appear quite confident that they] can run ten trains daily under the new arrangement. There are said to be quantities of goods and grain at all stations awaiting movement and it is thought that there should be " substantial surplus on working costs to spend on repairs of the railway. By all accounts this part of the project will need all the surplus that can be got, the state of the line being deplorable. In_general, we are told, the business community of Hankow expect that the new traffic will have should be taken the announcement made some ten days ago of loans about to be issued by the Kuomintang Government, of ich one is to be devoted to the redemption of the former Hupeh Government's bonds, at present, of course, worthless. In these measures there is a clear indication of a determined effort by the Cantonese to restore confidence. Under the terror which accompanied their arrival, not lessened by the subsequent' activities of the extremists, all capital fled down the river to Shanghai and there appears to be no more money in Hankow than is necessary for every-day buying and selling. It is, therefore, of the utmost importance, to the Cantonese to attract this; capital back to Hankow. What the ulterior motive may be we: may easily guess. If the Nationalists' plans for establishing a single government over all China are to succeed, money is imparatively needed; and it already; seems to have been discovered that, whatever else the rule of the proletariat may achieve, it certainly brings general poverty, in its train. Hence it would seem toat the period of stabilizaalready visible in Canton, where steps have been taken to repress the arrogance of the Labour leaders, is also to be inaugurated in Hankow. ited Whether the business men of soit more clear-sighted and outspoken the Wuhan will yield to this than most Chinese commentators of new seductiveness, remains to be events of the day, and it was he seen, They may ask for further who said publicly' in London not proof of the Southerners' bona Jong ago, that the revolution had [fdes*before putting their capital failed in China because there never
Borodin & Ca. But the proce reek of the lama often, "zak vian ati lo chine nova ce meet
governing classes which had brought fof stabilization cuts both ways. the top all sorts of people qui If, and as, business revives, em-unfit to wield power, But to the ployment becomes more general, [general intention of our correspond-prosperity also; and the result fent's letter, we know well enough a quietening influence on all what he has i mind and there is minds, which makes them less reason in it. 'There is nothing more amenable to the slings and ar-regrettable in the unhappy' times rows of the agitator. Simultane-we are living in than the apparent ously among the governing class, Inability even of the most cultured whatever their intentions may be Chinese to criticize calmly and with now, the first fury of the cam-_ soma regard for facts, Some speakers become simply abusive; the paign begins to cool; the edge best of them continue to serve out lof the attack is blunted and time the eld arrant nonsense about imallowed for calmer counsels penalist nations oppr' to gain a hearing. This same much like the ant-Chri [Sun Fo, who now proclaims him-we reproduced yester: self a devotee of trade and gen-woddie they talked about eral restoration, was but a few fari: s "oppressing" the Chinese,—days ago heard on a public plat-the said missionaries' idea of form alongside Moscow's agent, oppression being to lead extremely breathing forth threatenings and uncomfortable lives in an alien land, slaughter against the main-jon the most meagre salaries, and to attract every penny they can from springs of business prosperity in their own countries for the good of China. If we are not mistaken, China, If you tell a man quietly Mr. Sun Fo has boxed the politi-! th regard to truth what your cal compass in the course of his career with some agility. Let us hope that he will remain constant in the quarter to which he now points. At any rate the experiment along the Peking-Hankow line will be watched with interest. It may be productive of very much more than the recuperation of this sorely tried! railway.
[compl against him, he may get annoyed, but, if he is at, all reasonable, he thinks "the matter r and probably tries to put But if you simply hurl at him abuse and a hotch-potch of old jeatch-words which have no foundation in fact whatever, he merely grows contemptuous and indifferent.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.