1
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government,
CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[F 3235/81/10]
No. 1.
[August 20.]
SECTION 2.
}
Sir B. Alston to the Marqueas Curzon of Kedleston.—(Received August 29.) (No. 389.) My Lord,
Peking, July 11, 1921. IN continuation of my despatch No. 180 of the 1st April, I have the honour to report on the political situation in this country since that date.
som+
In Szechuan and Yunnan there has been no change. In the former province Liu Hsiang has had his position as Commander-in-chief of troops (which is temporarily combined with that of Civil Governor) confirmed by a so-called "election;" fighting which took place between the troops of Liu Ts'un-hou and their opponents has now ceased, but the province is still much disturbed, as described in my despatch No. 316 of the 18th June. In Yunnan, likewise, the conditions remain unsettled.
In Canton the dispute between Ch'en Chiungming and Sun Yat-sen terminated, temporarily at any rate, in the victory of the latter, who, on the 7th April, was elected by the. "Rump" Parliament at Canton as President of the Republic. Hostilities between Kuangtung and the adjoining province of Kuangsi broke out about the 20th June. While the forces attacking the latter province by the West River route have succeeded in capturing the important city and port of Wuchow, they have not been successful in other directions, principally in the neighbourhood of Yamchow and Limehow, cities not far from the treaty port of Pakhoi; the Kuangsi forces have evidently concentrated their efforts in this direction in order to obtain independent access to the sea, which they do not normally possess.
Turaing to the province of Hupei, a mutiny of troops occurred at Ichang on the 4th June, resulting in the destruction by fire or looting of nearly all Chinese merchandise and property of value left after the mutiny of the 30th November last, and also causing much loss to British and other foreign merchants; full accounts of this event were given in my despatches Nos. 361 and 377 of the 28th June and 4th July respectively. Four days later the Military Governor's own troops mutinied and looted at Wuchang, the provincial capital, as reported in my despatch No. 363 of the 29th June. As a result General Wang Chan-yuan's position, bolstered up though it may be by his colleagues of Chibli and Mukden, has been much weakened, and it is doubtful how much longer he will be able to maintain his position in the face of threatened revolte by political parties opposed to him as well as by his own subordinates, ainong whom his butchery of 1,700 unarmed mutineers after the Wuchang mutiny has done nothing to enhance his reputation.
On the 25th May the President issued a mandate removing from his position the Military Governor of Shansi, Ch'en Shu-fan, who has for some years maintained and enriched himself by the proceeds of opium grown in his province, and appointing Yen Hsiang-wen, a sub rdinate of Wu Pei-tu, to succeed him. His successor has entered Shensi province with the assistance of numerous troops, who have on occasion had to fight troops owing allegiance to Chen Shu-fan. The intentions of the latter are not as yet clear; while he has made military dispositions, as if preparing to resist his successor, he continues to declare his readiness to hand over charge to Yen as soon as the latter reaches Stan. There are grounds for the opinion that his desire is to delay his departure until he has received funds naturally coming to him from the opium harvest, which is now being gathered in.
The conference which took place at Tien-tsin at the end of April and beginning of May between the Military Governors of Mukden, Chihli and Hupeh, was succeeded by a visit of the three satraps to Peking, where they called upon the President and indulged night after night in gambling for huge sums of money. They finally returned to their homes at the end of May, taking with them sums which are believed to vary between 600,000 dollare and 3,000,000 dollars, which they had wrung from the so-called Central Government. The last-named sum is stated to have been obtained by Chang Tso-lin, who has accepted the position of Military High Commissioner for Mongolia and the duty of recovering that region for China, though it is stated that he still refuses to
[6735 -2]
566
: