13 OCTOBER 1894, Page 17

The accounts of Chinese disorganisation are simply horrible. Everybody steals

except Li Hung Chang ; there are practically 310 military stores ; and the unfed divisions, marching up from the interior, lay waste the country as they go. It must be remembered, however, that Asia is not Europe, that the Mogul armies used to do the same thing, yet fought on occasion; and that soldiers in the East claim frightful license. No head for China has yet appeared, nor any soldier capable of winning a battle--unless it be General Yeb, who seems to have fought well at Asan—and the conflict within the Palace is evidently not yet ended. Note, however, that the bulletin-makers speak with increasing frequency of the '" personal action" of the Emperor. That must mean one of two things. Either be is acting, in which case China has a head who, competent or incompetent, will be obeyed, or one of the factions has mastered him, and is putting forward his name in order to secure power. We suppose some Ambassador

knows something, but the absence of any account at once new and true is unexampled in the modern history of the Press.