27 FEBRUARY 1926, Page 4

If the Peking Government intervenes there may be an opportunity

at last of ending the disastrous deadlock' at Canton. As it is, the inhabitants of Canton are help--! less ; they are firmly bound down by the Bolshevist tyranny and this at a time when anti-British feeling all! over China is steadily slackening in intensity.. There" is no reason to suppose that the people of Canton any longer wish to keep out British trade ; even if they are indifferent to the stifferingi of Hong Kong and of British traders generally they have already suffered enough in their own persons. But the boycott is still insisted upon by the Bolshevists; A state of things which seems hopeless is sometimes remedied through a side issue, and we must hope that such a remedy is coming now. It is satisfactory on diplomatic grounds to know that the Commissioner, an Englishman, has not acted directly; or ostensibly on behalf of British trade. The seized cargoes are said to be French, German and Dutch.

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