Feb, 24.
To-day's instalment brings to close the graphic and important description of North condition contributed by our South Chili correspondent. The writer is one who knows the things he writes about: that jumps to the eyes" as always, the difference between a person-jai and a secondhand report being unmistakeable. And his considered opinion is that th jof the Northern Tupans are numbered. The ingenuity of their tax-collectors and the thoroughness with which the country is squeezed dry is a thing beyond belief.
Much has ready been heard of how trade is strangled in the large cities.
Not long ago, for instance, we learnt that 221 shops were {forced into liquidation in Peking before China New Year and several big foreign concerns have recently closed their branches the capital, because to keep them open was dead loss. But in the smaller trade centres the situation is even more serious, since, of course, resources are smaller. One of the latest dodges for extracting money is a tax on shop sig; amounting to two-and-a-half per jeent. on capital already suffi ciently burdened. Tu the country, registration of all title-deeds, with payment to match, adds a fresh burden which is likely to break many farmers altojxether: and this in a particularly bad year when the autumn harvest has been a- complete failure and prices are abnormally high. The customary dep dations of soldiers and bandits fill out the tale of suffering.
So incredibly patient are the Chinese that all this might not count for much politically, if only the army were kept in good humour. In Russia conditions lore horrible enough for everyone outside the pampered circle of ithe Communist Party: but the latter have been very careful to that the soldiers get ever; thing they want and so rest secure within their bayonets. But as far as our South Chihli correspondent's observation goes, ithe soldiers of North China are dispirited and disaffected. That may not be the case everywhere. Round about, Peking at least one would imagine they must be better cared for. But there is Ino lack of corroboration from other sources of what our correspondent tells us "Armies are riddled with disaffection, and there is no more fight in the troops. They are war wears, utterly disillusioned, and have lost all confidence both in their cause and their officers. Wholesale deser~ tions vere. taking place, officially equipment the known as a re-organiza
euphemism that deco A recruiting campaign at Tsans-[chow began as a miserable fiasco Jand ended in tragedy. "South IChihli has seen too much of the misery and cruelty of war faarbour any illusions." None of ithe decent lade of the district rauld enlist. Some waite and strays were enticed into the ranks by the prospect of food; but this was of the poorest there were no proper Jauarters for the men, no padded luniforms or adequate bedding; leight recruits in one temple Iwere frozen to death; the others scattered. abroad to fend for themselves. Pay may be served Jout from the general's head-
Jauarters, But it certainly does not reach the troops, The picture thus presented is all the blacker when we consider that. ithe peasantry of North China Jare unquestionably the best fighting material in the country. JO year ago, when the Northern {forces hurried away from Shang-thai, Soochow and Wusih without Istanding to exchange a shot with the advancing Nationalists, onlookers were dumbfoundered, remembering how in the autumn lof 1924 Lu Yung-hsiang's 30,000 shantung men had held Shanghai with ease against all the hordes of Chi Hsih-yuan. Pro-Ipaganda was, no doubt, the most Jdreaded weapon a year ago; bu our Chibli correspondent' Jaccount, it seems likely to prove fas potent again as ever.
"The Ankuochun leaders (he says) are preparing a very warm welcome in the hearts of the people for the Nationalists by shutting their eyes to the bitter resentment they have roused by their reckless exactions."
We may; perhaps, say here that we are perfectly sure our correspondent has no wish what~ lever to assist Nationalist propaganda, He merely records Iwhat he sees. His own preferlence, born of long life among ithe Chinese and intimacy with jail classes of them, would that there should be no fighting lat all. Shocking as conditions jate, they do not seem likely to be made better by further warfare, while a definite period of truce, by introducing a steadier latinosphere, should give an opportunity for the best sense Jof the nation to assert itself.
That is the position of all those who are urging the Nationalists to reflect before pressing on with the northern expedition. Facts like those reported by our IChihli_ correspondent make it difficult for them to argue conlvineingly. On the one hand, the Nationalists. must be as well aware of conditions in the north Jax any outsider can be. On the lather, there is some danger of their' thinking that those who plead for peace are secretly taking sides for the Northern mandarinate when its existence now at last appears seriously threatened. So far as that goes, Jwe can only say that we have Ino interest one side or the other. imperfect or worse as the Nationalist efforts have been Initherto, stultified by impractiical theories and neutralized by self-seeking, it may be conceded that they are after all the party lof ideas, which educated China Iwill one day mould into something workable for her advancement. The only point to emphasize is that those ideas would probably take root more deeply jand bear fruit more quickly in peace than in war.—Neither North nor South is without its Hhecl of Achilles. On both sides land in all directions there is but too much material ready to hand for the hidden forces of Com-
Imunism and whatever makes for further penury and public suffer-ting gives them a chance they It not be slow to seize.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.