Chinese activities in Peiping seem to be mainly confined nowadays to labouring for the Army of Occupation and pulling rickshaws, This last is certainly a very flourishing profession these days, no doubt because most other trades are at a standstill.
But one can scarcely blame the Chinese.
The Japanese activity and liveliness here are somewhat artificial. There is no genuine expansion of trade, but is almost entirely connected with military activities, It partakes of the famous catch about "taking in each others' washing." Though, as the Japanese are forcing their yen notes on the market, living has certain definite financial advantages for them.
The serious exploitation. of North China, in industries and mining, has not begun yet. Nor is it clear how it is to be carried through, despite the repeated rances on the subject. North China has no money Most of the wealthy Chinese have Jong ago departed. In any case, the Chinese are not very likely to be willing to put their capital into industries or mines, of which they may be dispossessed later on, as has hap pened in Manchoukuo. There remains, of course, the printing-pr If Chinese and foreign business people who are concerned in the economic development will accept yen notes, no doubt this will, in the end, be the method by which it will be financed.
"Money of no Importance"
It is apparently the method that is favoured by Mr. Matsuoka, president of the South Manchurian Railway, who in an interview given to foreign pressmen in Tientsin solemnly stated that money was of no importance whatsoever in the present crisis. As he is the head of the S.M.R. and! had come to North China to investigate the economic situation here, it is to be presumed that he knows what he is talking about. The only question is whether his views as to the unimportance of money are shared by the other parties who are expected to take part in the economic exploitation of the North.
Except for the amalgamation of the so-called Peace Preservation Committees in various cities, no important changes have yet been made in the political status of North China. Presumably, the Japanese are waiting until they have crushed all armed resistance north of the Yellow Rive It will be interesting to see what form a contemplated state will assume, specially, whether it will include Shantung or not.
Rumour has it that the choice of the Japanese for the head of this new state has fallen on once-famous ex-President Tsao Kun, His chief qualification for this position is that he is a Northerner, a citizen of Shantung: for nowadays the otherwise somewhat discredited principle of The Rights of Small Nations" is very much to the fore with us here these days. "North China for the Northern Chinese" is the slogan of the day, as displayed on posters all over the city. And as we are also so very democratic now. r recommendation of Mr. Tsao Kun will doubtless have been his skilful manipulation of the last parliament that sat in China, at the. time when he was elected president, All that Maj.-Gen. Kita the political chief of the Kwantung Army and a worthy successor of Gen. Doihara. has to say on this subject of the future status of North China, is the reassuring statement he made 10 foreign correspondents. here recently that, no matter what government might be established in North China in the near future, it will be one that will be in accord with the wishes of the people of North China.
"Return to Normaley"
As the alarums and excursions of war roll steadily. away from us, southwards and westwards, Peiping is slowly settling down to everyday life again, "Return to normalcy" the optimists "tall if, But it arcely that. A sulky acquiescence in th inevitable. would be nearer the mark, tempered by the secret hope that in the end seme miracle or other will free them of the foreign incubus Indeed, conditions are very far from normal: business is bad. communic; tions, except with Tientsin, are still interrupted, while large bands of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.