a truce has been arranged while they try and fix things up. The
government's ignominious surrender was partly due to the fact that the
places of detention were getting full and about twice as many students
spoke yesterday as the day before, when they arrested a thousand, and
the government for the first time realized that they couldn't bulldoze
the students; it was also partly due to the fact that the merchants in
Shanghai struck the day before yesterday, and there is talk that the
Peking merchants are organizing for the same purpose. This is, once
more, a strange country; the so-called republic is a joke; all it has
meant so far is that instead of the Emperor having a steady job, the job
of ruling and looting is passed around to the clique that grabs power.
One of the leading militarist party generals invited his dearest enemy
to breakfast a while ago--within the last few months--in Peking, and
then lined his guest against the wall and had him shot. Did this affect
his status? He is still doing business at the old stand. But in some
ways there is more democracy than we have; leaving out the women, there
is complete social equality, and while the legislature is a perfect
farce, public opinion, when it does express itself, as at the present
time, has remarkable influence. Some think the worst officials will now
resign and get out, others that the militarists will attempt a coup
d'etat and seize still more power rather than back down. Fortunately,
the latter seem to be divided at the present time. But all of the
student (and teacher) crowd are much afraid that even if the present
gang is thrown out, it will be only to replace them by another set just
as bad, so they are refraining from appealing to the army for help.

Later.--The students have now asked that the chief of police come
personally to escort them out and make an apology. In many ways, it
seems like an opera bouffe, but there is no doubt that up to date they
have shown more shrewdness and policy than the government, and are
getting the latter where it is a laughing stock, which is fatal in
China. But the government isn't inactive; they have appointed a new
Minister of Education and a new Chancellor of the University, both
respectable men, with no records and colorless characters. It is likely
the Faculty will decline to receive the new Chancellor unless he makes a
satisfactory declaration--which he obviously can't, and thus the row
will begin all over again, wi