The real problem facing Loyang is to devise some sort of a settlement which will be satisfactory to all the better elements in Canton, which will restore peace and guarantee the permanent exclusion of chronic trouble-makers, and which will prepare the province for the one all-important thing in Wu Pei-fu's mind, reunification. No northern leader Tabours under the delusion that Shen Hung-yin and his Kuangsi troops can stay long in Kuangtung. Their presence there would be a standing invitation to all Cantonese to sink their differences, unite under any leader and throw the invader out. The breach between Sun Yat-sen and Chen Chiung-ming, who now repines in Hongkong refusing to see guests, would now appear to be wide beyond all healing. But a few months of Kuangsi domination would heal a wider breach than this. In fact telegrams have already been received in Loyang from Cantonese who are arch-enemies of Dr. Sun that they would rather have him than the Kuangsi rulers. The matter to decide in the next few months therefore is how to get rid of Dr. Sun without strengthening him with the Kuangtung people, how to get Shen Hung-yin out also, and how to leave Kuangtung, so that it will not be at once the prey of hairbrained Kuomintang adventures. The ultimate solution would seem to be the recall of Chen Chiung-ming by Shen Hung-yin, his establishment in office under a reunification agreement _and then the withdrawal of the Kuangsi troops.
While no one in Loyang will admit that this is the essential solution, many are willing to confess that it may come to some such adjustment. There are plenty of Cantonese with axes of their own to grind who are bringing influence to bear here to ensure that Chen Chiung-ming should not be restored under Northern auspices and in alliance with Wu Pei-fu.
Until a solution is reached, however, the situation must. be considered unsettled. The _understanding between Chen Chiung-ming's officers, including Hung Chao-jen, and the invaders is a useful one but such an unnatural one; that no hope of permanent peace and order in Canton can be based upon it.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.