Dec. 15.
THE report quoted by Mr. Rodney Gilbert of bow the Honan bandits' prisoners were eventually set free appeals to one typically Oriental. Small groups of outlaws were secretly bribed by General Wu Pei-fu's agents, and the thing was done. The plan is so beautifully simple that one wonders why it never occurred to anybody before. It is to be hoped that the encircling military movements against the bandits, which are to begin now that there is no danger of their captives being killed, will be equally successful. For although the foreigners are liberated there are scores, if not hundreds, of Chinese in durance; and so long as the ex-soldiers of Chao Ti are at large and unvanquished, they may at any moment repeat the performances which have made the name of Honan infamous, have brought disgrace upon China before the whole world and have put back the abolition of extraterritoriality for an incalculable number of years.
But what we would specially emphasize is that the anarchy in Honan should be clearly understood, not so much™s an evil in itself, although assuredly it is that, but as a symptom of a far greater evil, which is neither to be conquered by bribery nor by the hugest encircling movements of troops. What has happened in Honan yesterday might happen in almost any province tomorrow, is indeed threatening already in Kiaochou. It is hardly too much to say that brigandage is the only real law of the land; for even in well conducted provinces, it would be difficult to say from whom or by what authority the rulers derive their power. Some provinces are well administered; most of them badly; and there is nothing on earth to say which is to be the fate next week of any of them, nor is there any power strong enough to pull down the mighty from the thrones that they abuse. The invincibly peaceful and long-suffering nature of Chinese business people and farmers keeps the country going after a fashion, but in plain fact China is in a state of complete anarchy, and so she will continue to be until these same merchants and farmers cease to be quite so patient and exert themselves to say that muddle and mismanagement must stop. It is not a question of brigands here or brigands there, but of going to the root of the system, or rather lack of system, which makes them to prevail everywhere. And while every respectable Chinese is keenly alive to the extent to which his country has '"'lost face'? by the misdeeds of the past few weeks, it might be possible to rouse them to such concerted action as the military folk and politicians would not dare to disregard. It is a case of striking while the iron is hot. Such was undoubtedly the idea of the resolution recently passed by the national conference of the Chinese Chambers of Commerce meeting at Hankow, calling upon the Government in Peking to complete the constitution, reorganize finances and disband soldiers; and such was the purpose of similar resolutions subscribed to by a number of organizations in Shanghai at the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.