The most satisfactory fact from the foreign point of view
is that the new Government more nearly represents China than any Government of the past. Sir Austen Chamberlain's policy of conciliatory patience has now a fresh opportunity. It will be necessary for the Powers not to be poisoned by memories of the past, and not even to reflect bitterly on what China still is, but to concern themselves with what China may be encouraged to be- come. At the moment it must be admitted that foreigners are sorely tried. Mr. Johnston, the Commissioner for Customs at Nanking, has been set upon by Nationalist soldiers and kicked into insensibility. A few days before some American students were similarly treated, and it seems that though other outrages have been committed no official body has owned to responsibility or undertaken any disciplinary action.
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