This Salt situation moreover, cannot possibly remain a local problem because, to set it right, the Powers cannot simply come down upon General Ch'u with threats and a show of force and insist that he yield up the Ch'ang-Lu salt revenues so that] China's foreign obligations may be met while his superiors, allies, colleagues afd rivals in other parto of China are permitted to remain in undisputed possession of similar revenues from similar sources which, they have taken for years. Simply, because he happens to be the last to appropriate salt. funds to his own uses is no good reason why he alone [should be penalized for it.
The writer is no apologist for! Ch'u Vu-p'u, but is simply pointing. out what no one with a sense of justice can fail to see—namely that} unless China is to be permitted to} Jdefault in the near future upon such Hoans as the Crisp, Anglo-French and hukuang, the whole international attitude towards the salt collectorats Jand the provincial chiefs who use it for their convenience will have to be radically revived and the immunity lof the service from local interference! insisted upon, not only in. Tientsin, but in every' salt district in the country. To try to bluff or worry Chu Vu-p'u into the transfer of his receipts. to the Peking collectorate, while shying away fivm the issue in Manchuria, Kuangting, Yunnan, Kiangeu, Hopeh and Szechuan, would bbe a bit of timid pettiforgery unworthy of any Occidental Power. It would be as small and contemptible performance as the recent tour of the big cities that could be safely and Jcomfortubly reached by rail anc steamer by the Extraterritoriality Commissioners. After the airing that this Salt situation has had abroad the collapse of the service ie one of these things that cannot: be allowed to slide gracefully into} oblivion. Something has to be done and something is going to be dune} and nothing will mend the situation but such action as will effect a complete and radical change of policy in_ Chins In Peking, a8 the writer has already said, we feel that this is coming, for more reasons than one. The fact that certain Legations have. already tried to focus action in this Salt situation upon Tientsin and limit it to an exercise of pressure] there, and have failed, is a hopeful Jdevelopment of the past few days which cannot yet be enlarged upon without violating confidences.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.