As for Chiang Kai-shek, the nominal head of the Nationalist
Party at Nanking, he has become a shadowy figure since the Tsinanfu episode. Last Sunday he expressed his wish to resign his military office and become head of the civilian Executive. He says with some plausibility that now that the military callapaign is over— but is it ?—all his attention will be needed for the civil reconstruction. His followers—those who have remained loyal to him—are appalled at the prospect of Chiang dis- owning all responsibility for the Nationalist armies which have marched up from the South. These victorious "ex- Service men" seem to have fallen into disorganization, to be unpaid, and to be developing a land hunger which there is no means of satisfying. The smoothing over of this situation must in fact be the first duty of a recon- structing statesman whether he calls his function civil or military.
