Do they imply a lack of faith in the epithets and other" agile Jgems of speech in the armoury Canton? Or-is that the discharge of those missiles against the Government of Nanking is so. heavy a drain on the verbal resources of Canton that for General Chen Chi-tang they cannot be spared?
Reviewing the situation less in the light of telegrams, mai festees and lampoons than by the general trend of events and by the guidance of psychology, it would be surmised that, although the Government have' not been able to make such progress: in their campaign against the communists as they yuld like, although the unfriendliness of nature has inflicted on them heavy blows, and although the difficulty in' the it. may be described Hiquidated, they have held their position in the main, They still can stand out as the authority to be reckoned with, in spite of the many signs given of the wayward tendencies of their own supporters who are inclined to interpret laws and dogmas according to their own particular fancy, To the earnest believer in the future of modern all this trouble in South and North and Middle iso pathetically "irrelevant. The general economic depression spreading right round the globe, with far more completeness than the flight of a world-girdling airman, should be a strong inventive to the people of any nation to exorcise disunity from its midst. That is a counsel of perfection, If its adoption in part only is possible something might be At prevent stark dissension greets eye wherever it fums.
Meanwhile China suffers—silently but devastatingly. the Government there are'men who recognise the force of this ow. It. cannot. be believed Mr. Sun Fo and Mr, Eugene are entirely indifferent to it. Their own declarations, indeed, suggest. that they are Marshal Chang—Hsueh-Hang has remarkably defied the sapient exponents of tradition by remaining firm in his reliance on Nanking. During recent weeks there has been a strong revival of those mysterious prognostications which always vern to find ready expression in feertain centres' of thought. It has still to be established that the Young Marshal's policy will find permanent acceptance at Mukden, It must, however, be recognised that it has stood the test of nearly a year of very strenuous activities, Old tradi ions have their value but there comes a time when some of them have can never change his spots is fortified by the facts of natural history. Danger comes when he endeavours to translate a zoological fact or a pigmentary axiom into a kind of immutable law to govern psychological happenings, That the possibility of there being an end one day to the apparently interminable strife in China is within the bounds of human perception been present to the minds of the Powers when they initiate ed the policy of recognition of Nanking and, with it, a patient tolerance in the face of discouragement and frequent cor tumacity, The same notion may be working in Canton as well as in Nanking at this moment. The news that General Chiang Kai-shek's Government have once again thrown out peace feelers and have gone so far as to authorise emissaries, trusted by them and respected by Canton, to carry proposals for a peaceful settlement is the most welcome and, happily, the most reliable of the various reports now current regarding Chinese polities. Let it be hoped that the emissaries, in their wisdom and tact, will be able so to con-duet their mission that even the fiery denunciations, of which both sides have riven abundant measure, earn be interpreted the. merely. playful. blandighments of men who would be Friends in spite of themselves. Reconciliation need not preclude the free expression of differences of opinion. It should, in fact, provide or that expression find a regular channel and, thereby, to exercise salutary fluence on affairs. The policy of the Government in the North might: give a useful pattern for the establishment of a fair rapprochement' with Canton."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.