nd persuade them to wait patiently for
the decision of the Government.

Well, I have always wondered how it was that poor old China is
forever paying indemnities, first to one country, then to another; I
have never known how it came about. Pretty easy, come to think of it!
First grab a piece of Chinese soil, then suppress all protests by
levying an indemnity.

The "Gazette" seems to have gone too far in its championship of China,
and has got into trouble. Almost from the beginning the editor has
insisted that the French Government itself was not to blame for this
affair. He has asserted repeatedly that this high-handed procedure was
the individual action of the French consul-general. As far as I can see,
these little "affairs" always take place in the absence of the
minister,--a well-timed vacation, during which an irresponsible charge
d'affaires acts on his own initiative. Be that as it may, on this
occasion the French minister happens to be in Paris, and the "Gazette"
is insisting that the charge d'affaires has exceeded his authority and
acted without instructions. Apparently this interpretation is given
partly because of a desire not to involve the two governments in a
hopeless snarl admitting of no retreat, and partly to calm the rising
anger of the Chinese, who are incensed at the delay in restoring the
captured land. While stoutly refusing to retire from its position as the
champion of Chinese liberty and territory, the "Gazette" is insistent
that this act could not have been committed at the instigation of a
country at present fighting for liberty and justice, a great nation
pledged to noble ideals.

Whether this attitude has been due to a sincere belief in the Allies'
professed ideals, or whether by the fixing of blame on an irresponsible
official who has exceeded his authority, the French are being offered a
loophole to retreat from an intenable position without "losing face," I
don't know. Certain it is that "justice, liberty, and civilization" have
been dragged into the argument, day after day, with irritating
persistency. Really, the Oriental mind, plus contact with a higher
civilization, was becoming unbearable. So a stop was put to it in this
way: One morning the papers contained an announcement that "The Allied
and neutral ministers despatched an identical note to the Chinese
Foreign Office, warning the Chinese Government against allowing the
Chinese press to attack the diplomatic body in the way i