The Cordova daily times., 1923-01-10
FEAR CHINA NOT NOT ABLERU
 SHANTUNC

COLUMBIA, Mo, Jan. 1O-While early reports of new bandit out breaks around the port of Tsingtao, in Shantung Province, seem to have 1 been exaggerated, foreign observers in that section of what is now China are not convinced that it is a safe place for either foreign lives or in vestments. Ask the average foreigner in Tsingtao as to his opinion re- garding the taking over of Shantung by the Chinese, and the answer will ! be to the effect that such a work is almost hopeless.
 Leading those who claim that China will be unable to administer Shantung properly are the Japanese officials and residents of Tsingtao, and chief among these claimants is the Military Governor of Tsingtao himself. In the office of the Govern or some weeks ago the writer was given the opportunity to study bandit activities in the province ever since the Japanese took over the Leased Territory around Tsingtao and the administration of the port. On a hap, carefully shown, were the var ious bandit zones along the railway which connects the flourishing port of Tsingtao with China proper. A key at the side showed how bandit raids had been controlled for some years and gave an idea as to the headquarters of the raiders and the damage they had done.
 Credits Jap Rule
 The Japanese Military Governor in showing the map, made the claim that the bandits had been controlled for no other reason than that the Imperial Japanese Government was on the job. He frankly stated that the weakened politicians who operate in Picking would be unable, even if they had the desire, to give other nationals in Shantung the protection that had been afforded them by the Japanese.
 The history of Shantung is closely interwoven with what is best known to the outside world of China, name ly, the Boxer Uprising. For in this province began much of the out break which was afterward to stir the entire civilized word Here, in 1898, China lost a most valuable section of her territory to Germany because of the murder near Tsing- tao of two German Catholic priests. And since that date, despite excel lent administration by both Ger mans and Japanese, the bandit dan ger in Shantung has never been re- duced to a minimum.
 Capital Endangered
 Along the Shantung Railway from Tsingtao, the port, to Tsinanfu, the provincial capital, are valuable mines and salt fields. Here Japanese cap ital has been invested, and here some valuable buildings have been erected by these same Japanese. Dotted along the line and south of it are various sections which have been infested by bandits, and in of present the fear that with the end of Japanse control a permanent hold will be gotten by the robber bands. With American missionaries there in some numbers it is only natural that the American Legation in Picking must keep in constant touch with the situation. The Consulates in Tsl- nanfu and in Tsingtao receive infor- nation weekly, and at times daily, and from these letters there goes to pr. J. G. Sschurmann, American Min ister at Picking, information which is later filed in one of two fOlios, either the one on Disturbances in Shantung," or one entitled Anti Foreign Demonstration" It is under stood that similar folios are kept by the British, Japanese and French Le gations. For the ministers of the powers to keep in touch with such things is most necessary, for it is a known fact that there are anti foreign clements in China, elements which need only popular move ment to make them a most menac- ing factor to the republic.