can be no face-saving in this way, my friend, for the reason that, just as Tao laoyeh knew that the Buddha had not been stolen, so also he knows that there were no jewels inside it when it came into my hands. He opened it in my presence, and I saw with my own eyes that it was empty. What purpose, therefore, will be served by my doing as you suggest? Think again."

The Abbot sat silent for a while, furiously thinking. Twice he lit his pipe and poured himself a fresh cup of tea. Finally he sighed, as one who has done with a hard problem. "This Russian," he said, " is a strange man, and his words are as iron covered with soft silk; nevertheless, he understands taoli and can talk reason. If now I tell him the whole truth, no doubt the matter can be arranged between us. Why should he wish to make trouble for me?"

Old Chang was right. The matter was settled in due course, and so discreetly that neither the priest nor Torginsky ever favoured me with details of the pact. All I know is, that no more attempts were made to persuade me to part with the Ivory Buddha, and that shortly afterwards a certain very beautiful Marchesa aroused the envy, hatred, and malice of all her gentle sisters in Legation circles by appearing at a five o'clock with her dainty waist encircled by a belt of kingfishers' feathers and gold filigree, fashioned in the

form of a snake; and the eyes of that glittering reptile were a pair of sapphires.

To-day, among the faithful remnant of worshippers at the Po Yün Kuan, there are still some who remember old Chang, the kindly, easy-going old Abbot with the weakness for opium, and how the worthy man was robbed of the famous Ivory Buddha and other precious treasures of the shrine. I know that this is so, for the story was told me quite recently, as to a stranger from afar, by the aged watchman who now opens the gate of the Temple to visitors. He spoke very earnestly about the alarming increase of evil-doers in recent years, a phenomenon which he attributed to the passing of the Dragon Throne; but he believes in the ultimate triumph of the Yang over the Yin, of light over darkness, and had no doubt that, just as the Emperor would some day recover the Great Inheritance, so the Ivory Buddha would be miraculously restored to its ancient place. It may be so.

For the present, however, the Buddha dwells serenely on the heights of Campden Hill, and on his lips I can discern the same elusive shadow of a smile as that which flitted in the dim religious light of the altar at the Po Yün Kuanthe gentle smile of the Compassionate One, born of the knowledge that Time and Space, and all the fitful fever of men's lives, are but as tiny ripples on the infinite Ocean of Illusion.

AT the beginning of 1922 the Northern Government were faced with some pretty stiff problems-problems which in the piping times of of peace would be hard enough to solve, but which in the midst of civil war appeared at times impossible of solution.

But before the Northern Government could tackle any problem, they had first of all to get going to create a civil service, police force, law-courts, and all the intricate machinery of a modern Government.

Not a very difficult task if they had been let alone, or received the protection from the Imperial Government to which they were entitled by the Act of 1920.

From the very start the South, seeing the rich taxes of the North slipping from their grasp, laid themselves out to make it impossible for the Northern Government to govern.

Also the Imperial Government were set on forcing Ulster in under the South in order (as they fondly imagined) to complete the success of Lloyd George's super-settlement of the Irish Question.

any one or anything in Ireland, and you have the appalling task which faced the Northern Government.

The hostility of Sinn Fein was, of course, inevitable, and the hostility of Lloyd George to be expected; but the indifference of the English people was a bitter blow to the Ulster Loyalists.

The first problem to be tackled was the Sinn Fein conspiracy to make government in the North impossible : and it was obvious from the beginning that if the Sinn Fein conspiracy could not be met and eventually broken, the Northern Government could never make any headway.

Sinn Fein, probably with the aid and advice of the Russian Bolsheviks, has invented a new method or weapon of warfare -to conquer a country by making it impossible for the Government of that country to function by means of an organised system of outrages,

ambushes of the Government forces, murder of police, soldiers, and Government officials, sabotage, and arson. And all carried out ruthlessly and without any regard for life or property.

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the I.R.A. to carry out some outrage; and when the evil deed is done they at once revert to their original rôle.

In most countries such a campaign would be countered by public opinion, which would give the necessary information to the Government forces to enable them to lay the conspirators by the heels.

But Sinn Fein was prepared for this eventuality, and met it by organising such a terrorism of the general public as has seldom, if ever, been seen. Any man or woman who gave information to the Government was condemned to death by a "court-martial," and duly “executed ”—in plain English, murdered.

They were clever enough to realise that the finest police force in the world is powerless unless it has the support and confidence of the general public.

But, in the same way as every new invention of warfare (gas, submarines, aerial bombing, &c.), no matter how terrible, can be met and countered by the brain of man, so can this method of destroying the Government of a country invented by Sinn Fein or Bolshevik, or both combined, be met and overcome by determined men.

The Northern Government had seen the Imperial Government fail to meet and defeat this Sinn Fein method of warfare; and they had the advantage of being able to profit by

If the Northern Government had only had to deal with Ulster Sinn Feiners, the task might not have been so difficult; but they had to deal with hordes of imported gunmen from the South as well.

No Government forces can deal with an underground rebellion successfully, no matter how much information the general public may give them, without a well-organised and efficient secret service. And, thanks to the efforts of Mr Birrell, the secret service in Ireland had practically disappeared.

So that the Northern Government, in addition to building up a new police force, had to organise a secret service service which it is nearly impossible to improvise in a short time.

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Sinn Fein conspiracy-the party and individual feuds and vendettas which have been responsible for so many murders.

Also it must be remembered that many of the armed holdups in Belfast are the result of the stagnation of trade and industry and the resultant unemployment. But, on the other hand, it has been proved from captured documents, &c., that the hold-ups involving thousands of pounds have been the work of gunmen acting under orders of the I.R.A.

Gunmen, like Specials, are an expensive luxury, and have to be paid. The pay of a gunman serving on a flying column in Ulster was the same as a special constable-£3, 108. a week.

Add this outbreak of hooliganism to the outrages and sabotage of the professional I.R.A. gunmen, and you have a stiff task set for the Northern Government to restore law and order.

They had seen law and order disappear completely in the South; and in the early days of 1922 law and order in the North were perilously near disappearing point.

When the Northern Government started to function, the Loyalists of Ulster had pretty nearly reached the limit of human endurance at the hands of the Sinn Fein gunmen. Luckily they did not know that worse was to come; and many times, after some peculiarly atrocious crime, a violent outbreak on the part of the

shipyard workers appeared imminent.

Time after time these fine men controlled themselves in spite of the extreme provocation they received. They realised that if they took vengeance on the Shinners they would be playing into the hands of the enemy. Nothing would have suited the Publicity Department in Dublin better than an outbreak of this kind. Consider the magnificent advertisement the dope Press in England would have given Sinn Fein. Great headlines telling the English people of the brutal outrages committed by savage Orange mobs on innocent Roman Catholics in Belfast!

But one wonders how English miners and Clyde shipyard workers would appreciate being bombed by Reds when on their way home in tramcars from their work,-would they take such treatment lying down?

Unfortunately for some time a small extreme section of the Government's supporters appeared to consider that the Shinner was to be delivered into their hands. It was a case of God save us from our friends so much so that at one time the Northern Government were more hampered by the efforts of the extreme section of their supporters than by those of the Sinn Fein gunmen.

Among minor problems, the Northern Government had to make their people understand that the sympathy and support of the English people was abso

lutely necessary if Ulster was ever to make any headway as a self-governing province.

Having seen the betrayal of the Southern Loyalists, the Ulster people knew well that the Imperial Government would not hesitate to deliver Ulster over to the same fate if it suited their political aims. And they were right-an effort was very soon made.

Lloyd George's Border Commission was nothing more nor less than an underhand effort to break up the Six Counties by handing over Fermanagh and Tyrone, and possibly the city of Derry, to the South; the remaining part of Ulster would then-so it was expected -fall an easy victim to the concentrated pressure of Sinn Fein and the Imperial Government.

Quite a clever scheme, but fortunately too great a betrayal for the British people to swallow, and the plot had perforce to be shelved, though only temporarily.

The Border Commission plot, however, had one good result unforeseen by Lloyd George

it opened the eyes of the Ulster people to what they were up against. Moreover, it made them determined to resist Sinn Fein and, if necessary, the Imperial Government to the bitter end.

Further, it made them begin to realise that, if once they could prove that Ulster was able and had the good will to govern fairly and without favour to any section and to restore law and order, they would win the sympathy and support of the British British people, which, once won, they need no longer fear Sinn Fein or the Imperial Government.