Tee Japanese would have had no aimeutiy in finding leaders. for such 'a movement among the usual swarm of disgruntled and out-of-work pollt!- long and ex-generals. But the trouble was that these people had no armed force behind them, and as the population was entirely "passive and. indifferent, a rising of any Kind staged by them' could be suppressed without dimeulty or bloodshed bythe local Chinese police force, as actually happened recently ju Tientsin. Persons fof this ind could not bring about "elvit war" calling for armed Japanese intervention on behalf of peace order, (The farcical autonomy loration at Tungchow Is not a case!
point, because it took place in the demilitarized zone, and any attempt on the part of the Chinese authorities to suppress it by force would, have Been a breach of the Tongku Truce agreement.)
As a Lasi resort the Japanese turned to the few remaining generals witn armed forces of their own in, North China. But here they appear to have! struck a snag in the jealousy of these leaders, each of whom, If rue mou Is to be credited, was not entirely averse, if needs must, from becoming the saviour of North' China, but was. quite unwilling to serve under the Other fellow. 'This difficulty even 'Tapanese pertinacity seems to have been' unable to overcome. Every' means of persuasion and pressure has been used by them in recent weeks: threatening troop movements Outside the Wall: reinforcement of the Tientsin and Peiping garrisons; aeroplanes in fighting formation "flying Over the Tatter city; above all. the arrival of that skilful diplomat, Gen= eral Dolkara, on a "sightseeing visit, fo. the old capital!
Allin vain. Just when everyone, including the Japanese themselves, thought. that i was all settled, the movement suddenly broke down. Gen. Han refused to leave Shantung, and Gen. Shang Eton departed in haste for Paotingfu, in the comfortable Iemowiedge that he oontd always Te-tire further south feom there if neces-forge Gen. Sung Che-yuan and his subordinates were Tete to face the wrath of Gen. Dolhara. All oh time, it must be observed, the Government in' Nanking had remained Strangely silent and inactive. The! unfortunate Tocal authorities. have rade no secret of the fect that not only. were they unable to get any] promise of support from Nanking, Dut did not even receive any reply] to their flood of telegraphic appeals.
Finally in despair, Gen. Sung seemed once more to Fave screwed un his courage to the sticking point and was about to make the best of a bad, Job by declaring. autonomy, when. at the eleventh hour Gen. Ho Ying chin and his party arrived unexpectedly from Nanking. Once more tke morse! was snatched out of the jaws of the Japanese. But the respite can only be_a temporary one.
"The Kwantung Army have viewed arrival with considerable disfavour. They have openly criti~ clzed tis reporied plans for a North China administration as a retrograde; step which would be merely return-Ing t the state of things when Gen. Huang Fu was in charge in the North. Notting short of complete autonomy complete in fact, if perhaps not in hame—is now likely to meet their wishes, They will doubtless not infist on the two dreadful characters "tu 1" (separately established) which miger even so alarm the other em-Dassies as to drive them headlong out of Peiping, but will probably be content with the milder "tzu chih" Golf-governing) which would enable those same embassies to continue! Eere with easy consciences.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.