CO129-477 - Public Offices - 1922 — Page 190

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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