3 MARCH 1928, Page 3

For the moment the news from China has a more

satisfactory appearance. Seventeen of the foreign Inspectors of the Salt Gabelle, including four British, have been reinstated in various widely distant posts. This should be a step towards increasing the miserable balance shown in the hands of the banks at the end of last year, too small to promise any meeting of the charges upon the revenue. H.M.'s Minister at Peking has been making a tour in the South and been very well received, almost effusively welcomed by the authorities at Canton. There even seems to be a slight increase in trade at Shanghai and Tientsin. As for fighting inland, the lull seems to continue, as though theauthorities of the Nanking Government were becoming more firmly established, but the spring may see a revival.