There is no good news from China. A fortnight ago
we recorded the- seizure of the salt gabelle in: the South- by Marshal Sun Chuan-fang. Since then the military authorities at Tientsin, presumably men of General Chang, have compelled the salt merchants to pay the duties direct to them instead of to the Salt Administration, which has been displaced. The gabelle is the security for the international loans by which China has profited in the past, and its seizure is most serious financially and internationally. The diversion of the money will not benefit the Chinese, but only help a Tuchun to pay troops which are the curse of China. It is easy to say that the foreign Goverriments and diplomats should be firm in this outrage : firm against whom ? There is no Government to deal with. It is equally useless to talk of the Chinese representatives on the Lague of Nations taking action. Whom in China can they influence ? Until one Tuchun swallows all his rivals, there seems to be nothing firm enough to be the object of firmness on the part of the nations who are robbed.
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