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C. MARTIN WILBUR
by the police head, who was a government officer under direct control of the county police office. Thus very little self-government is apparent in this new system.
Another phase of activity where external pressure was brought to bear upon the traditional forms of organization in Ching Ho was in the establishment of a local branch of the Kuomintang party. In 1928 the county party organization appointed three men to organize a local party in the district. But because enough members could not be found to form a proper district party the organization was given the rank of branch association. In the meantime the directors attempted to form two organizations in competition with already established semi-political bodies.
The first of these was to be a Merchants' Union to displace the influential Chamber of Commerce composed of the leading shopkeepers of Ching Ho. The attempt to form a competitive Merchants' Union was not very successful. Although, the Chamber of Commerce suffered a setback, it followed a policy of passive resistance and its leaders are only waiting for a favorable opportunity to revive their own organization.
The second body which the local Kuomintang party tried to crowd out was the Farmers' Association for the Protection of Crops. This organization has a history of several hundred years in China, and in Ching Ho it was quite powerful. Its main purpose is to protect green crops in spring and autumn, but it enters into other activities for the benefit of the farmers. The local Kuomintang attempted to organize a Farmers' Union on the pattern of the successful organizations in South China. Although the party authorities worked quite hard to form such a union in the district, they were only successful in smaller villages, and could not get a foothold in Ching Ho itself, where the association was too powerful to be destroyed.
At the time the survey was made the fortunes of the party were under a cloud due to internal dissensions. All the party members had left town including the organizer and his associates. The organizations they had established continued to function in an uncertain way.
If Ching Ho were a typical rural village one might be able to infer what the results will be when the National Government