A correspondent sent to the Times of last Saturday a
vivacious and well-informed account of the personalities in the new Chinese Cabinet. The Cabinet, as a whole, he says, reflects the suave persistence of Yuan Shih-kai and his ability in adroit compromise. Yuan believes in the principle prac- tised by "the Old Buddha" of setting one barbarian against the other. The Ministers of Commerce and Justice are the same who were selected when Yuan was still playing the part of a Mirabeau and trying to save the Monarchy. At that time Yuan was attempting to placate the Cantonese pro- gressives, and he made his choice of Ministers from the south, ostensibly to give the Southern party more power, but really to sow dissension. Chang Chien and Liang Ch'i-chao refused the honour, and it is not yet certain that they will accept it now that it is offered to them again. They are both distinguished men of letters. The new Premier, Hailing Hsi-ling, is a moderate progressive, but the balance is corrected by the inclusion of two members of the conventional mandarin type. Of these two, both of whom served under the Monarchy, Sun Pao-chi is a kind of Vicar of Bray, and Wang Ta-bsieh is also" essentially a man of peace and plenty." No active foreign policy need be expected under the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sun Pao-chri. Finance will be the Government's preoccupation. The new Cabinet is, in the correspondent's opinion, a better instrument of government than usual, because it contains no opium sots, no mumbling octogenarians, no persistent parasites, and no windy dema- gogues.
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