Peking, Feb. 24.
Gutwardly, at ang rate, the aspect of Peking remains one of complete peace one calm, In fact, stagnaion would be the correct! term to apply fo conditions here. just now.
Werything. is, waiting on. the ¢ome of the War round Shanghai. 'There is, however, a certain feeling: of unrest and expectancy to be noticed, which appears from some Of the' strange rumours that are flying round: as for instance, that the Japanese have demanded the withdrawal of the Chinese troops from Shanhaikuan, of which nothing known either in Chinese or Tapanese responsible. circles. Or the rumour that the Japanese were sending aeroplanes to. bomb the Berodrome. at Nanyuan, to the South of the city.
Furthermore, brigandage. in. the] surrounding districts appears to fu the inctesse, Thee have been Several hots-ups recently, a pas-Senger train was held up on the line between Peking and Tientsin and. the passengers. robbed, and there: have been numerous cases of kidnapping of wealthy persons in the! suburbs, That; quite apart from the Japanese trouble, there is somethin brewing under the surface, wou! gee to be indicated by the large troop movenients that have been taking place in the North recently. Shansi troops have been moving northwards into the district round. Beking: Fengtien troops have. been withdrawing from here towards the South one the East, partly down the 'Han line and' partly towards Tlenain: whet an Fucehu's trope in. Shantung' have been moving: towards" the borders of Honan. What' it all' means, or whether it means anything at all nobody seems. know, Enquiries in oficial circles. merely digit vague references to a ener miliary re-organisation, or fo preparations for defence against Japanese invasion.
The Chinese newspapers are doing a roaring trade these days, and the War telegrams they reproduce easily surpass the most lurid efforts of the Buropean Press in the eatly days of the other "The Chinese Characters in their head-lines row {in size from week to week, and if the War continues much" long they will certainly have the. size of their. nows-sheet 'The effect of this kind of mews fs to have given the people an enormous new confidence. in' them selves, But all the same, I note that for the ordinary man, the class that has attention to the immedi Of how to earn its dail ay, the class that has and pay all the taxes-peasants, ug labourers, small shop-keepers ind so forth, for all these the feeling seems to be one of relief "Well, anyhow, if they do Rome, now we know that we can always drive them off," rather than of actual wnimos rains the Japanese. They, like their class all over the' world,' quite certainly do geste a "struggle to the bitter The real anti-Japanese feel-ting and the oxy, for a National War tush Japan" is, as usual in these plain that, if Japan were merely consulting" her own wishes, she ould have declared: war, after the first shot at Chapei, In' that case, she would have landed at other} places on the China. coast, "thus {forcing the Chinese to disperse their military forces, whereas, under present conditions, the Chinese are fable to concentrate all their armies at Shanghai, against which Japan, in deference' to the Powers, is only' Ie able to despatch a Limited number. Although, perhaps, from a purely) military point of be*some truth in this argument, oes not really exculpate them, for th, obvious reply is which T did not all that, and therefore, should never!
"You ought to have foreseen pave, scarred the Shanghai venture all"
'The genera) impression one gathers, is that the hot-heads "on oth sides' are now firmly' in, the saddle, the Chinese shouting "Not fan inch of Chinese sell!", and the Japanese "We must wipe out our reverses!" so. that the Wat will Thave to take its course.
There are still a few reasonable Chinese who are asking theroselves, "What is going to come of all this Even if we drive the Japanese back to their ships—the favourite phrase, these days—what then? They will) Attack somewhere else, and more of our cities will be destroyed. We Shall'no doubt drive them of eve tually, but we cannot enforce any demnity for the enormous losses)
shall have suffered. Meanwhile trade is at a standstill, the governpt, heavier and now will have to be resorted to. 'That will cause further unrest which is likely to lead toa general Bolshevik upheaval, Why does not the Government" propound some policy of instead, of this Talk of-a fight to the finish? Why' not wake some offer to Japan? We have shown the world that we are [quite able to defend ourselves. Now the iniament to break off, before our defence crumbles owing to lack of vesourees."
This seems sound sense, but, of culty. is, that the government" of China, does not contain people like the speaker, who is not a politician.
Another Chinese shrewdly I thought to the conclusion that it would have been better, if open, war had been declared from the beginning. ket casein thied Power world be] ble to offer its services as mediator and the combatants could then definitely. state the terms on which they are prepared to make peace. But now both governments merely! reply' to all attempts at mediation, that they are now carrying on a. war, but merely defending th ights, the Chinese their soil ai the Japanese their nationals, fohat ino possible basis for negotiation can now be found. Under present conditions I don't see, show things are ever going to be brought any end."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.