Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 / Page 367 (Color Image)

0367	Peking to Lhasa : vol.1

A TENTATIVE PROPOSAL 283

done, and that they can act openly and with im-

punity within 30 miles of a treaty port, where there

are foreign gun-boats. The brigands, too, I was

told, have opened an office in Chung-king, where

the oppressed merchants can buy brigand protec-

tion at a fixed robber rate.

Cities, like Lu Chou on the Yangtze, are

plundered, sometimes by soldiers and sometimes

by brigands, and one wonders how the unfortunate

merchant can carry on at all, whilst all over the

country luckless coolies are seized and forced to

work for nothing.

If there were any gleams of honesty in the

officials there might be some hope, but they seem

to be going from bad to worse. Matters have got

so bad that it looks as if it would be a long time

before things can again become normal. The only

hope appears to lie in foreign intervention or in

the advent of a Chinese Napoleon. The latter

would be the better solution, but unluckily there

is no sign of the advent of any commanding

personality who can enforce discipline and gradu-

ally bring corruption at any rate within bounds.

No doubt such a man will eventually be found,

but this may not be for years. On the other hand,

if the Powers decide that the breaking-point has

been reached and that they cannot wait indefi-

nitely, the result may be some sort of foreign

intervention. If they could work with some sort

of unanimity the prospect might be hopeful, but

after the fiasco of the Versailles Conference, where

friends found themselves hopelessly divided by

conflicting interests, it hardly looks as if they

could work in harmony in China, where interests

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