Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 / Page 369 (Color Image)

0369	Peking to Lhasa : vol.1

A TENTATIVE PROPOSAL 285

often as well armed as the soldiers. In theory,

disbandment would be the right course, but who

is going to enforce it, and how can soldiers be

prevented from going off with their arms as

brigands ? Another sound theory would be to

insist that no recruits should be enlisted, but how

can this be enforced ? Now that the foreign

communities on the coast have at last woke up to

the gravity of the situation, they will clamour for

things being put right without considering how it

can be done, or the difficulties to be faced.

I think the best thing would be to raise a small

model army under young and energetic foreign

officers, starting in some more or less isolated place,

say at Tientsin, and to enforce Chinese agreement,

this force to be paid regularly out of fixed sources

of revenue in the hands of the foreigners. At the

same time Manchuria might be handed over to

the Japanese, who could cope single-handed with

Chang Tso-lin. This model army would be in-

creased gradually according to circumstances until

it could be extended all over the 18 provinces.

But this would mean a very slow beginning,

and might also meet with opposition from the

nation generally and the local chiefs in particular.

It would therefore be advisable in particular to

secure the co-operation of the best man who can

be found. The man who appears to be the most

suitable is Wu Pei-fu, who might be willing to act

with the co-operation of the " Christian " General

Feng Yu-hsiang. Wu can be classed as the best

General in China ; as far as I know, he has retained

his reputation for honesty, and his troops are very

nearly the only disciplined soldiers in the country,

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