The news from China that Marshal Chang Tso-lin was throwing
over his ally, General Wu Pei-fu, seems to have been false. At any rate, Wu's troops instead of having to look, after themselves in any other direction have made an energetic thrust at the Kuominchun Army which was said to be impregnably established in the Nankow Pass. This Army, of whose condition we have heard little since it lost its creator, General Feng Yu-hsiang, and subse- quently marched out of Peking, has now retreated further to the North-West. The wretched conditions of insecurity still afflict China, and we hear of further misery due to floods in the Yangtze Valley at Hankow and below the town, and to a cholera epidemic at Shanghai. The news from Hong-kong is that the Bolshevists are keeping the Cantonese troops supplied with munitions and money. The Powers seem unable to improve matters, having no one with whom they can deal as representative of China. If any stable Government of the whole country or of a part should arise the Powers ought to be prepared with unanimous proposals. To discover the soundest line of action and to reach unanimity upon it, we believe that they should now revive the Washington Conference and try to start afresh from the basis of their agreement at the last Conference, which was a genuine success.
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