Jan. 3.
Tt can be only of casual academic interest to foreigners in China whether the ruler of the territory in which he be termed chairman of a committee, generalissimo, president or tuchun; even the names of individual governors are not of such tremendous significance: For, basically nothing really matters except that there should be law and order, fairly administered taxation, and that the for trade should be the exper of the it has' been found that some of the men who had the worst reputations, when they governed, gave the province a decent administration, while those in whom all virtues were anticipated, produced nothing beneficial.' The quarrel then between General Chiang Kaishek and the Nanking Government, which he has unseated, must' produce the coldest neutrality. We want an end to strikes and political disorders, an end to closed highways, an end to illegal taxation, and end to all the nuisances from which the whole of China and this community, in particular, have been suffering these many year:
The question then that arises at the moment is, can General Chiang Kai-shek' provide this peace? Before he has had an opportunity to assume office some events occur which are startlingly, significant. First, the semi-Communists are recalled to Nanking and we are asked to accept them smilingly be cause they are necessary for the quorum of the Central Executive Committee plenary session secondly, Dr. C.C. Wu and Mr. Sun Fo''resign and indicate a wide cleavage in the Kuomintang, both supplying the country with exceedingly intel esting letters of resignation; then General Li Chi-sen's troops e-occupy Canton and that means trouble between the Kuangsi faction in Canton and those who supported the Wang Ching-wel coup @état in that city, partic ularly the semi-Communists who are now to be important individuals in Nanking; and finally, we have the telegrams signed by General Pei Chung-hi, General Cheng Chien and the other Hangkow military men, which is tantamount to declaration on their part that, if General Chiang permits the semi-Communists to attend the plenary session, Hankow, that. is, Hunan and Hupeh, will have no. dealings with' General Chiang's Nanking Government.
From the above summary it would appear that most of General Chiang's difficulties arise because of the protective wing which he has spread over the semi-Communists, and it is as dificult for the foreigner to swallow them as ft is the Kuangsi generals. In many. respects, they are even worse
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.