New President

With oriental swiftness that might well stagger the Western World, the Parliament of China reassembled on the overnight decision of party managers to elect a President. Peking was gaily decorated; soldiers paraded the streets; the very air was alight with hope.

As on a former occasion when the election was attempted (TIME, Sept. 24), it was found that the Members of Parliament present were short of the quorum necessary to elect a President. The day was saved, however, by the arrival of a train from Tientsin bearing 38 additional members, more than enough to make up the quorum, who received great ovations from their fellow members. The combined 590 Senators and Members trooped into the Assembly Hall of Parliament and were ceremoniously " locked in." The election had begun.

Marshal Tsao-Kun, Chihli Tuchun (War Lord), was elected President of China in succession to Li Yuan-Hung, who fled to Tientsin three months ago (TIME, June 25). He received 50 votes more than the statutory minimum required. It was reported that he won the election by bribing Members to the extent of " 5,000 pieces of silver " each.

Marshal Tsao-Kun is a powerful militarist and if he succeeds in enlisting the services of General Wu Pei-Fu (Tuchun of the Yang-tsze Valley), his position will be rendered impregnable from a military point of view. On the other hand he is a man of little political ability and lacks force of character; moreover he is reputed to be surrounded by " evil counselors."

Sixty years of age, Tsao-Kun started life as a private soldier, but displayed such qualities of leadership that he attracted the attention of an officer who sent him to a military school. There he made excellent progress and later became an instructor.

The first matter on the agenda will be a stiff test of the new President's power. The accredited Ministers to China resident in Peking protested last week against Foreign Secretary Wellington Koo's reply to their note of last August (TIME, Aug. 20, Oct. 8), wherein he stated that the bandit episode of last May was not directed primarily against foreigners. The Diplomats renewed their demands on the Chinese Government and stated:

" It is irrefutably established by facts that the outrage was directed against foreigners. The instigators declared on many occasions their purpose was to capture foreigners and use their nationality as a means of bringing pressure on the legations charged with the protection of the hostages and, through the legations, on the Government. This purpose the bandits succeeded in accomplishing. . . . Every foreigner may fear and does fear the same fate."

An attempt to meet the demands of the Diplomatic Corps at Peking will bring President Tsao-Kun directly up against corrupt local authorities and, no doubt, against many of the Tuchuns. If he puts down brigandage effectively he will have also put down to a large extent a corrupt civil administrative system and will have gone a long way toward crushing the power of the Tuchuns and reunifying China. Observers have it, however, that the President will be no more than a figurehead and that little will be done to alter conditions now prevalent.