"However that may be, since we have gone so far, we must go through with it. 1& would be absolutely impossible to turn back. Most of the trouble under the Republic is traceable to the loose arrangements made by the first provisional government and by the fact that we had no established rule to adhere to—no constitution or other fundamental standard. After the coming collapse of government, when the field is clear, we shall have to start over again and evolve something better suited to China's needs. Parliament has recently re-written the constitution again, but even this will not do. We shall know better later what we want and then it will have to be re-written again."
As a last word in the interview, Marshal Tuan again took up the question of the foreigner's attitude towards China.
"You will not have to wait long,"' he assured the writer, '"'before conditions.will be ripe for achango. You cannot open a boil until it comes to a head. If you wait patiently till the proper time you can cure a boil rapidly and easily. All thet we have to ask of our foreign friends is that they gain a sufficient understanding of real conditions in China to know that the season for eruption, cure and recovery is in the immediate future. We need publicity of the right sort abroad so that we may get understanding and sympathy without straining foreign patience."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.