300
HOW CHINA IS TO BE UNITED.
(Daily Press, March 18th, 1922.) THERE is
an amazing report in the Chinese press in the form of a cable from Shanghai to the effect that Marshal CHANG TSO-LIN-who is popularly regard- ed as the Autocrat of China-is about to issue a manifesto pledging his support to Dr. SUN YAT-SEN, and expressing his disappointment with the selfish military ambitions of General WU PEI-FU. To the majority of readers, perhaps, nothing would seem more incredible than this, for the organs of the Canton Party have been persistently denouncing CHANG TSO-LIN and all his works. The policies of SUN and CHANG have appeared to be utterly irreconcileable. The great War Lord of Mukden has been the maker of Cabinets at Peking, and it has been generally acknowledged that, without the support of his military forces, no Government bould exist there. Last December his authority in this connection was plainly challenged by the younger member of the influential military triumvirate of the North-General WU PEI-FU, who sent forth from Hankow a series of vituperative telegrams denouncing as a traitor the man whom Marshal CHANG TSO-LIN had nominated to the office of Prime Minister. Such was the support General Wu gained by his agitation that LIANG SHIH-YI felt that he had to quit the offices but as the charges brought against him were mani- festly unfounded he has refused to resign. He took what in China is a familiar course in applying for " sick leave," and he has had his period of "sick leave" extended three or four times. His "sick-
ness
is, of course, purely diplomatic. He has been watching from the seclusion of his home the efforts of the President and the War Lord of Mukden to clear him of the stigma which General Wu has cast upon his character. General Wu's acceptance of the denials of his accusa tions has been very half-hearted; at all events it has not been such as to satisfy Mr. LIANG SHIH-YI that he can emerge from his seclusion and resume office feel-
ing that the stain upon his character has been removed by the man who placed it there. Marshal CHANG TSO-LIN has evi; dently been greatly annoyed at General Wu's attitude, and has possibly been also influenced to some extent the suspicion which seems to prevail wide'y in the North that Wu is planning a coup calculated to overshadow the influence of CHANG at Peking.
by
for
in
the
[
"
[March 28th, 1922
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS &
matic counterstroke. There is reason to scribed in such circumstances. China's regard the Shanghai cable we have quoted gains, in reality, as the American as having a substantial foundation in Minister said at Canton, have been large, fact, for in a recent Peking paper it was substantial and in several respects highly reported that Dr. C. C. We, Vice important. That they were not larger Minister of Foreign Affairs
than is actually the case is due entirely Canton Government, had been to Mukden to China's unpreparedness to receive the a conference with Marshal CHANG responsibilities which the Powers would TSO-LIN and it waз
stated that' a
otherwise willingly entrust to her, and solution of the question of unifying the when Dr. WANG in concluding his address North and South was worked out." All at Shanghai expressed the hope, that in that remained was to secure the approval the interests of the future peace of the of the Super-Tuchun of Chihli (General Far East, our own people will make a TSAO KUN), and Dr. Wu would "return to determined effort to improve our domestic Canton and prepare for the unification situation and win the respect of the world," he indicated with sufficient clear- of China."
ness the whole
casc against China winning at present from the Powers all the concessions she seeks. Until there is a strong Central Government in China, until the administration of the govern- ment throughout the country has under- gone much needed reform, and until the public finances are rehabilitated, the any of the guarantees they have acquired foreign Powers must hesitate to surrender
in China.
DR.
CHINA'S
GAINS AT WASHINGTON.
view?
"
repre-
SHATIN ROAD SHOOTING INQUIRY.
(Daily Press, March 21st, 1921.) Minister to China, who has been on
SCHURMAN, the United States visit of several days' duration to Canton, a incidentally delivered two or three public what had been achieved by China at the speeches. In one of them he reviewed Washington Conference. described these achievements as
Dr. SCHURMAN large, varied, very substantial and in some respects highly important." What is the Chinese Chinese opinion
All the expressions of
(Daily Press, March 22nd, 1922). we have
seen are expressions of disannointment that THERE can be no doubt in the mind of China achieved
80 little. Dr. WANG anybody who has closely followed the CHUNG HUI, the Minister of Justice in the evidence given at the Coroner's inquiry Peking Cabinet, and one of China's
into the shooting upon Я sentatives at the Washington Conference.
crowd on gave in a speech at Shanghai a fortnight strke that
the Shatin road during the recent the verdict of "justi- 130 a resumé of achievements at the fiable homicide" returned by the Jury Conference from the Chinese standpoint.
was the only judgment which could Our people," he said,
be properly hoped for too
formed on the facts. much. They hoped that all the wrongs sets forth the circumstances in a succinct The Jury's elaboration of the'r verdict that China had suffered during the last and convincing manner, and no impar- eighty years would be righted at the Con- tial person can hesitate to endorse not ference. When I sailed from Eurone I only the Jury's exoneration of Mr. KING told Dr. WELLINGTON KO +ḥat China but also the commendation which they would get about people desired. Now, when I look at the and military immediately concerned for cent of what her consider is due to him and the police results I believe we have secured but 5 the'r conduct and patience under most plain what he regards as these very sonal courage. That tr bute was certainly per cent."
Dr. WANG attempted to ex- trying circumstances and for their per- agre accomplishments by saying that well deserved. tribunal where nations were tried, with "the Conference was not a judicial other nations acting as complainants; but a Conference in which it was necessary to
the Chinese labour guilds specially con- It has occasioned no little surprise that cerned in the matter were not represented find unanimity in order to secure a settle at the inqu ry by an advocate. It wil ment." By inference it is suggested that tions with the Government for a settle- be remembered that in the final negotia- all the demands China made at the Con- ment of the strike the delegates brought ference would have been conceded by an forward for discuss on the matter of this impartial tribunal acting judicially, and coll son with the armed Government that she was able to win only about forces, and we were to'd in the Govern- Only a few months ago there was a nes cent, of her demands must be attributment résumé, that the point was met by good deal of speculation as to whether able to prejudice-not the sound judgment the promise that a public judicial inquiry General Wu PEI-FU would not join forces of the majority of the Conference! Yet Dr. would be held, and also that the Govern- with those of Canton to defeat the present WANG, in the course of his address, really ment would be prepared to consider military influence at Peking and secure showed that China obtained by means of favourab y the giving of compensation in the unification of the North and South the Conference much more than any the case of the persons who had been in this way.
General Wu's proposal a iudicial tribunal could have awarded. killed year or more ago for a National Conven- Perhaps in the eyes of most Chinese the imag ned that every effort would have or injured. One would have tion at Loyang for the purpose of restor-greatest triumph was the return by Japan been made by the Chinese concerned to ing a Parliament in accordance with the to China of all the ex-German rights in put their case in the most favourable Constitution suggested that the gap be- Shantung. If the Conference had been a light possible, but in point of fact the tween his policies and those of the Canton | judicial tribunal, it would certainly have Coroner seama to have been left to Party was a narrow one which might be denied China's demand, for the question secure Chinese witnesses by practically easily bridged. But when General Wu, had been settled by the Treaty of commandeering them, and to cross- at the head of a great army, came down Versailles, and it was not within the examine, himse 'f, all the witnesses as we the Yangtsze Valley to check the progress power of a Conference sitting at Wash should expect an advocate for the Chinese of the revolt against Peking he did things ington to abrogate that Treaty. But by to cross-examine them. No reader of the which made e Constitutionalist Party the good offices of representatives of two reports of the proceedings can have failed his unforgiving foe. Where Dr. SUN YAT of the nations that had signed that to be impressed with the able and SEN might have counted on finding at Treaty the delegates of China and Japan thoroughly judicial manner in which Mr. least a bridge in the Yangtze for his were brought together and the result was J. R. WOOD conducted the inquiry, and Expeditionary Army against the North, an agreement which could not have been if. as we may assume, the failure of the soon made clear that he would reached by any other means. Why the Chinese organisations to be represented find only a barrier. The quarrel between Chinese-and especially the Chinese in the Court was a token of their con General WU PEI-FU and Marshal CHANG Delegates to Washington-should repre. fidence in the impartial administration TBO-LIN over the composition of the sent their achievements as so insignificant of British justice, the thoroughly impar- Cabinet at Paking has afforded the
the we are unable to understand unless it is ta' conduct of inquiry amply Canton party an opportunity for a diplo-all a matter of the false "etiquette"? pre- justified their trust.
it was