In one respect, however, this year will stand out as a; landmark in Chinese history—as the year of the great Washington Conference. It was a great achievement, carried out in the face of formidable diffinities, and in common with all ur fellow countrymen we heartily congratulate our distinguished delegates, and their advisers (the chief of whom, Sir John Jordan, we are glad to see here to-night) upon the eminent success of their; mission, Outstanding features of the Confeence were the conciliatory and friendly attitude of the wpanese, and the conspicuous bility with which the Chinese conducted their case; both of which made it possible to arrive at settlement of questions which ha' been sources of friction and ill-celing for many years. One would have thought that the diplomatic success of the Chinese delegates, which, amongst other things, gained for their country the rendition of Shangtung and the prospect of freedom from foreign interference 7 pressure, for, at any rate, some time to come, would have so great-enhanced the prestige of the Central Government that the whole country would have united in supporting it, in order that, having dealt so ably with external affairs, it might be given an opportunity of tackling the no less difficult internal problems, but apparently 1 this has not happened.
The present Government inj Peking includes some men of great ability, amongst them Dr. Wellington, Koo, the late Chinese Minister in London, and one of the Washington delegates; it- has the support of a large number of the old Parliament, and the. moral, if nov the very active, support of Wu Pei-fu, who succeeded in defeating Chang TsoJin this summer; but with all this, it has been unable to assert its authority throughout tho} country. Hsu Shu-Cheng is in command of a hostile force in Fukien province, and he captured Foochow about three weeks ago. According to reports in the press, Sun Yat-sen is said to be at the back of this trouble, while Chang Tso-lin in Manchuria has secured new supplies of inanitions from essentially not very different from Vladivostock, notwithstanding the those which confront the country larins Embargo, and is evidently to-day—stability in the country preparing for further trouble. The: amongst the masses of the people,: chief difficulty of the Central Gov-the absence of stability in the ernment is the old one of want of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.