General Sung Cheh-yuan has left and the 29th Army is in process of leaving" Peiping. The General has gone to Paotingfu, whither it is presurhed the forces under his command will repair on their withdrawal from the Peiping and Tientsin areas. Gen. Chang. Tzu-chung who is persona grata with the Japanese has taken up the acting Chairmanship of the Hopei and Charhar Political Council in addition to his duties as Mayor of Peiping. The reports of skirmishing ard clashes between Japanese and Chinese troops appear on the whole to be overdrawn, Such hostilities as have occurred may be regarded as, in the main, the outcome of isolated operations unconnected with any considered design on the part of high authority, Thus the Japanese desire to localize the crisis, with the willing assent of the Chinese Government as explained by Int. Quo Tai-chi in Lon-Gon, appears to be finding fulfilment. Presumably much D depend on thy terms which the Japanese propose for the future conduct of North China affairs. They possibly will be less onerous than might have been expected since the situation has developed so favourably to the composure of the Japanese position in the North. It is early yet to be certain that Ganger of major hostilities has been averted, but it will be recalled that the Japanese have consistently maintained that the elimination of the 29th Army was the chief object of their importunities, That Army is now solving the problem as it completes its withdrawal which began on Wednesday night with a certain degree of rapidity. The -eloquence of speeches and statements on both sides, whether in Tokyo or Nanking, has not been free from ambiguity even in expressing sentiments of apparently dreadful purport, but it has revealed a common anxiety to preserve peace if by any chance such a course can be made consistent with national dignity. In fact the vigour of the verbal duel has been all along reas-Nations seldom waste much breath when they feel the need for the exercise of other methods of persuasion. This may be too optimistic a view to present as a definite essméfit of the position; it is at least not incompatible with conditions s they are known to exist, If it should eventually prove to have a stronger claim to acceptance, the next step will be for both Governments to get down at once to the task of applying diplomatic running repairs to the temporarily distressed vehicle of Sino-Japanese relations.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.