it is probably one of those gentle ironies of fate that the substance of Mr. E. F. Harris's letter on the subject of the Western Area, published in the correspondence columns on November 28, should within about a week receive the most striking corroboration in the fire which took place on Sunday at the Wong-Ka-Loong village, off Yuyuen Road, east of Edinburgh Road. The full tale of the damage done has not yet been revealed, but, as far as present information goes, there were at least ten fatalities, a somewhat larger number injured and between 500 and 1,000 straw huts destroyed rendering 3,000 persons homeless. Some industrial enterprises dignified with the title of "factories" appear to have been ruined, but the damage done to their flimsy construction was such that the owners are reported to have already commenced rebuilding. All constructions in an area of 125,500 square yards were demolished, and it is indeed fortunate that adjacent foreign style properties did not become involved. To get at the fire the Brigade had to run out a length of 900ft. of hose, their efforts were checked on the northern side by the presence of a high wall while the general lay-out of the village, with its alleyways rarely more than three feet wide obviously made it impossible for the firemen to penetrate into it, and forced them to be content with doing what they could from the outside. The general description of the fire to be found in yesterday's issue not only discloses the difficulties which the fire brigades had in dealing with the outbreak, but gives sufficient indication of the state within the village under normal conditions. It is obvious that such a congeries of inflammable straw huts, crowded together, without adequate drainage were not only unsafe from a fire point of view, but must have been completely insanitary, and a menace to the surrounding properties.
In view of these facts it is interesting to recall what Mr. Harris claims he can see from his residence From the roof of one's house it is now possible to look across a sea of straw huts, woodshacks and wooden buildings with factory chimneys, and the area has taken on the appearance of Yokohama after the earthquake If a fire were to start with strong wind to fan the flames there would be one of the Government Obstacles When General Doihara, Japan's author of mysterious polities and subtle designs, returned to Peiping, it was stated that he had in his pocket complete plans for the new federal government upon which Japan places so much importance. For the time being, there they will stay because Marshal Wu Pei-fu, the former Chihli warlord, has refused to accept the presidency although it was understood that originally ' he had assented to the proposal, Whether this refusal is in the nature of a Cesarian gesture is not known at present, To a man like Marshal Wu, who once enjoyed the choicest fruits of power in China, and with no particular interest in the Nationalist doctrines of General Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang, the opportunity dangling before him to head the new government must be tempting. In the turbulent days of civil war preceding the emergence of the Nationalist Government when warlords with huge armies roamed the country, creating kingdoms of their own and using guile, money and arms in ambitious schemes of conquest, it was said, like the prize fighter, there is never a successful comeback but they rarely can quit the.game. Marshal Wu was defeated by General Chiang's forces in 1927 and went into retirement although the process of his decline was already far advanced. High hopes were set on Marshal Wu's ability as a statesman and soldier to bring some form of order out of the military and political chaos into which the country was plunged before the Nationalist revolution but, wiser than other leaders who afterwards suffered extinction, he retired and devoted himself to developing his poetical gifts which were said to be as great as his military and admi trative promise, In creating the new. federal government, it was natural that the Japanese, who with a few exceptions have been singularly unsuccessful in attracting men of position and influence, should turn to these figures of bygone days, especially Marshal Wu Pei-fu and General Chih Hsieh-yuan, who already possesses, a post but has been mentioned in connection with that of chief executive. If North China, where Japanese occupation has been longest and most firmly established, is unable to produce the man of the moment, it seems inevitable that resort must be had to those "surrounding the Reformed Government in Nanking. Mr. Wen Tsung-yao recently stated that by the middle of this month regional administrations will have been established in Hankow, Kwangtung, Kwangsi and Inner Mongolia and delegates will be invited to the third conference of the Provisional and Reformed Governments at Nanking when the larger question of a federal government will be settled. This statement appears, inthe light of events, to have been highly optimistic and until the right man for the presidency has been discovered Japan's plans must remain in abeyance.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.