It is a sorry picture—fiVe Englishmen and six Americans held
prisoners under shocking conditions, while the- brigands try to exact guarantees- of their own safety from the' very Powers who have been affronted ! It may be said that the Central Government in China must be compelled to restore order and to keep it. We should have first, however, to invest the Central Government with the force or the authority which it has not got. We do not doubt the anxiety of the Central Government to obtain the release of the prisoners. The Times corre- spondent says that the troops whiCh have been sent to- protect people- from the brigands. are as -great a scourge- as the brigands themselves. He goes so far as to assert that the position of foreigners all over. China is becoming insecure. If this be 'so, and unfortunately we have no reason to doubt it, there has been no more ominous situation in China since the Boxer rising.
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