THE action of, General Lu Yung-hsiang of Chekiang and General Ho Feng-ling of the Shanghai and Sungkiang area in announcing that the new rates of the Chinese Post Office and the Telegraph Administration shall not prevail in these districts, is a bombshell. Had the same thing occurred in Kansu_ or Szechuan, no one would have felt any surprise. It would have been of the normal order of things, like compelling farmers to grow opium in order to collect a licence fee first and a percentage on sales afterwards. But in the regions administered by General Tu and General Ho we are accustomed, and with good cause, to think that law and order are the rule, not the exception, and that the existence of Peking as the centre of government is not wholly regarded as a dead loiter. Both General Lu and General Ho are men of high standing, respected, solicitous for the. welfare of the districts they rule: As we pointed out when the new rates were advertised, Chinese merchants make large use of both posts and telegraphs in their business and in these depressed days will feel the extra charges not a little. With the knowledge of how his own province has suffered from typhoons, we may believe that General Lu is resolved not to allow this burden to be put upon them, the proceeds of which may go he knows not where. None the less, at least as regards the Post Office (the Telegraph Administration is a'different matter) his present action cannot be defended.
It is needless to say that no one wants the Post Office rates increased. The case for doing so would be stronger if the annual figures of its revenue were published. The report for 1921 merely says that working ex-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.