Sir F. and Red Threat One feature of the background to Sir Francis Agien's abrupt dismissal from his. post as Inspector General of the Customs, which has not been dwelt on here but is now made clear in correspondence from Peking, is that the Reds in Hankow were definitely pledged to wreck the integrity of the service if he obeyed Peking's orders and undertook the collection of the surtaxes This is. very important because it constitutes in itself a sufficient rea-fon. for. the Inspector General's lover-emphasized disobedience of orders. It transpires that wren Sir Francis was in Hankow on the perfectly legitimate errand of trying to save the Customs service from division and disintegration, Mr. T. V. Sung, Minister of Finance, jelosed his conversations with the feategorical statement that, if the Customs collected the surtaxes, the Southern regime would seize all the Customs Houses in territories under its rule and take over the administration, This was, of course, wired to Peking to the Diplomatic Body and had the immediate effect fof stiffening the resistance of those Pewers that disapproved of the legalization of surtaxes, so that it would have been impossible to have obtained unanimous diplomatic approval of the step which the Peking administration demanded. To have complied with this demand would not only have been a betrayal of the interests of the twelve Powers for which Sir Francis Aglen is feustedian, but would have split the service upon which the vast majority of Chinese and foreign holders of rely for the stability of their investments and {to which holders of unsecured paper look for eventual security. und when be speaks he uses the old-fashioned pidgin, but let any. Coun-el, in the midst of a prosy. argument, say:—"M'lud, I would refer' your Iudship to Smithson on the Comparative Weights of Roofing Tiles, in the case of Cholmondeley Rex," and Tingehai, without waiting for anything further, floats silently out of Court and he in- a minute returns with all the terrible. record of Cholmondeley. Rex, occasionally with the musty tome even. open at the proper page. It hay~ pened one day that the Clerk of the Court and the Marshal both. were) absent when the Judge was about rise and it seemed possible that Someone not used to the ways of courts might omit to pay the cour~ tesy which all must recogniz) in the presence of His Majesty's legal Tingehai, howeve: wis equal to the occasion and, fo once in his life, his mild voice rose to a stentorian roar as he than-dered:—"Court!" and all rose to. their feet. Tingchai again came to rescue yesterday. Two Sikhs. came up on a money-lending case, but neither could speak English and) Jobvicusly they wanted to say something. The Judge ordered an ad-Jjournment to secure an interpreter. However, the Silchs waited and then Tingchai' sprang into the breach, assuming that one of the litigant being 2 policeman: must know Toast a little ly and in than, with a bow! fo the Judge, announced:—"Pi no contest action. They outside, Can settle outside Court. Tae Judze led, the Sikhs smiled, Tingehai smiled,' and thus there! went into history another tribe to the unfailing justice of British [courts of law.
Solomon, the Tingchai Outrage on Catholic Fathers M, Supreme Court has a Ting-chai, perhaps somewhat older than hho looks; who is as valuable in his sphere a3-any official of the Court, Srom Judge or Registrar downwards, jand most-likely they will admit it. He sits through hours of the longest ease, apparently taking no interest, Nothing will serve to advert abroad the delight which the Russian inspired leaders of the new! Boxer movement take in bad faith /s0 much as their cruel and malicious treatment of Christian missionaries, in the interior, Incited by: supposely responsible officials, inflamed by Rod hirelings, and protect oil bby the well disciplined units. of the Cantonese army, the dregs of nearly: Jevery community in Hunan, Kiangsi, Hupeh and even Szechuan' that has jerome under Kuomintang influence, have learned to torment, maltreat, loot or expel the Christian mis: sionaries who have worked unc! fishly and helpfully for the betterment of the Chinese people. This Jcomes as no surprise for Bolshevism is essentially qthoistic and Boxerism jcavontially anti-foreign; but the persecution of the missionaries never tholees serves as a conspicuous illustration of Red bad faith because General' Chiang Kai-shek, when interviewed by a Hankow' journalist after he had" been given time to prepare a thoughtful answer to all fqucstions, said on November 19, steel with Christianity ill "always be wel fore. The elimination China te not part of Passing over everything else in the way of anti-Christian demonstrations in the Yangtze Valley, we have only to check against this assurance of [General Chiang's the telegraphic report of the seizure of two British (Catholic priests in western Hupeh by the "Farmers' Unfon" to prove the callous perfidy of the whole Red [movement. Fathers MacDonald and 'O'Connell are being dragged round the country in wintry weather barefooted, clad in trousers and shirts, by a band of 2,000 country ruffians who are apparently licensed by the Red administration to call themselves a Farmers' Union and perpetrate outrages in the name of [China's legitimate aspirations. Meanwhile the Red Foreign Office docs nothing, for the very obvious rea: that if they attempted to interfer, they would be. treading. upon the special rights which Borodin and clique, have bought. fore we have definite Kuomintang pledge of good. behaviour and a. conspicuous and flagrant violation of that pledge. What better touchstone shall, we lever want. to test the worth of any promise of assurance that] emanates from any branch of the Red organization?
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.