190
spread and it is a real power for evil.
Students and the Press encourage and
spread the wildest tales about Great Britain's
designs through Tibet. and the more fantastic the
tale, the more eagerly it is swallowed, Absolute
falsehoods have also been published regarding
French misrule in Annan, All these are now at the
present time merely "incidents", but they are, to
my mind, being deliberately piled up for the day
of reckoning.
The students at the University are almost
out of hand, and the professors seem powerless to
produce proper disalpline. Many people have
commented on their nontemptuous attitude towards
foreigners. In this connection, I am of opinion
it only requires the return of forty or fifty of
the students from France who have been writing
violently anti-foreign letters to Szechuan, to
organise students and Labour in a manner which may
produce very serious consequences. It is very
marked how Labour and students are drawing together
in Chengtu. Added to this it has to be remembered
that Bolshevik propaganda is finding its way
everywhere; that a complete organisation exists
in the secret societies, which are all-powerful,
which can be put in operation for any purpose;
brigandage is rampant; and that after five years
of civil strife the Province is ready for complete
anarchy. Yang Wel, the former Commissioner of
Police, who is living in retirement, told me that
within the next two years everything would be ready
for utter disorder and it was only after that period
had
that