12 FEBRUARY 1927, Page 2

. The news is good, so far as it goes,

that Mr. Chen has reopened negotiations with Mr. O'Malley, but there can be no hope of a settlement till Mr. Chen abandons his impossible claim that the Cantonese Government should be recognized as the Government of all China. In a speech at Hankow last Saturday he repeatedly said that if Great Britain would only behave " frankly and courageously " shc would at once come to terms with " the only Government that could make an effective binding peace," but that Great Britain preferred " to retake the old cart road towards Peking."