Whatever may have been the experience of the pre-war school statesmen, nowhere in the world to-day can any administration afford to rest on its oars. Problem after problem arises with special insistence on attention. Effort has to be sustained, vigilance unceasing. This reflection forcibly impresses fitgelf on the observer of the situation with which the Government at Nanking has to deal. Last summer a special drive against the Communists in the Yangtze Valley was carried out with eventual success. Certain progress was made in getting into contact with the Communist enclave in South Kiangsi. The 19th Route Army was established in Fukien; the success of its control will perhaps be assessable during the year, Mr. T. Soong has managed, by a combination of shrewd—financti opportunism and careful bandy to extricate the country's credit from what appeared to be a hopeless. position. Politically, dissension within the Government's ranks, leading to resignations and their ultimate with-
Jdrawal, has been given the same {treatment as has been applied to the country as a whole: tolerant acquiescence. The result is that Mr. Sun Fo has returned to the Government. Mr. Wang Ching-Wei is still a nominal partner in Nanking's policy and Marshal Chang Hsueh-liang speaks for the Govarmment s¢ Pellog, how lever precarious this last a1 tment may become in the light of recent events. Autumn's trouble in Shantung has subsided with General Han Fu-chu in peaceful leon trol, his weaker opponent hhaving'been removed from the scene to another province, Sx chuen has given lurid evidence of the indifference of its warlords to the sufferings of the people and the perplexities of Nanking. It is asserted that Szechuen is ready to repent; hope of that repentance taking practical shape is livelier than belief in a sudden transform tion, especially as Szechuen hi "been taxed for over a decade in advance. There remains Canton where, if anything, the spirit of separatism has grown rather than decreased in recent month:
Any Government, in such case, would deserve sympathy. The possession of wisdom and sincerity of purpose beyond all dispute would hardly suffice to keep an administration free from anxiety over so grave an issue that developed in the North. Giving Nanking allowance for a reasonable amount of political and moral defects, it is easy to perceive that the task before it is extremely baffling. The normal state of a country of Chin density would make acute perception of the intricacies of the political situation difficult to bring home to the people. When this geographical obstacle is added the natural indifference of one province to the woes of the other, to say nothing of the absence here of a really cohesive national sentiment capable of rising superior to personal prejudices, the Gove ment's position becomes all the more unenviable. Unbiassed observers, indeed, would be prepared to marvel that any dire tion of policy had been effected at all. For, while at Geneva, Dr. Wellington Koo and Dr. W. W. Yen have been able with considerable success to act the spokesmen of China, the ernment has had to face, fri thin the borders of its nominal control, frequent demonstrations lof recusancy. In guiding foreign policy it has been, on the one hand, assailed by a chauvinism which is quite incapable of honouring its own bonds and, on the other, obstructed by a placid indifference exploitable by ened mies within and without alike. If, for example, it listened to the fiery counsels of Canton,-whence it could draw material support of no" kind whatever, it would inevitably precipitate a clash to the probable loss of that little nominal ascendancy which it commands in the North, Its own knowledge of the futility of attempting to organise armed resistance on an adequate scale to the Japanese threat is fortified the representations of financial interests on which it has greatly to rely. Tt cannot neglect this reality one yet it has to placate. the resentment of another section which looks only. ito the physical significance of Ithe invasion and ignores the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.