In China the talking of the session of the Kuomintang
is over and perhaps the executive will be able to pass to some action. But the civil power is obviously bound at best to walk warily among the military powers that surround it, and at worst it will find a soldier trying to trip it up at every step. There are all kinds of rumours of movements of troops here and there, certainly uncon- trolled from Nanking, and there is little, if any, relief from the occupation by these troops of the Mission buildings, schools, and hospitals belonging to foreigners. The Government will be equally ill at ease in trying to make internal reforms and in dealing with foreign powers. Mr. Hewlett has left the Consulate-General at Shanghai to represent His Majesty's Government at Nanking and reopen the Consulate there which has been closed since March, 1927. We wish him well in a mission that is likely to call for unlimited patience and care. In the North the old question of the control of the Chinese Eastern Railway has again been raised acutely by being made an excuse for an invasion by troops of the " Mon- golian Soviet Government," a movement obviously inspired from Moscow.
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