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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government."
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CHINA
CONFIDENTIAL.
[March 31, 1925.]
SECTION 2.
651
No. 1.
Sir R. Maclean to Mr. Austen Chamberlain.-(Received March 31.)
[F 1150/2/10]
(No. 64.) Sir,
Peking, January 31, 1925.
IN continuation of my despatch No. 831 of the 31st December, I have the honour to report as follows on the developments in the political situation in this country during the past month :-
2. The end of the year had found the position of the Provisional Government under Tuan Ch'i-jui outwardly not unfavourable, especially on the Yang-tsze, where the last powerful supporter of the Chihli party, the Nanking Tuchun Ch'i Ilsich-yuan, had apparently accepted his dismissal from office without fighting and withdrawn peacefully to retirement in the foreign settlement at Shanghai to make way for his old enemy Lu Yung-hsiang, the Anfu leader, who had been appointed "Pacification Commissioner of Anhui and Kiangsu. To consolidate the position Mukden troops of Chang Tso-lin's Manchurian armies were being drafted through Shantung into Kiangen in support of Lu Yung-hsiang; and at Shanghai Chang Yun-ming, a general of very indifferent reputation, who had originally come from Hupei with a brigade to join in the attack on Chekiang in the interests of Wu Pei-fu and the Chihli party, but who had subsequently joined the winning side, exercised de facto control on behalf of the Peking Government. Apart from Ch'i Hsieh yuan himself, who appeared eliminated, the only doubtful element in the situation" on the Lower Yang-tsze seemed to be Sun Ch'uan-fang, who had become Governor of Chekiang in the Chibli party interests after the expulsion of Lu Yung-hsiang, and who in this capacity exercised a large measure of influence in the Shanghai region. That all was not well in this quarter was indicated at the beginning of the year, when some obscure fighting took place near Shanghai between the troops of one Chen Lo-Shan, one of Lu Yung-hsiang's former lieutenants, and those under Sun Ch'uan-fang's command.
3. Early in January Mukden troops began to reach Nanking, where Lu Yung- Almost simultaneously there occurred hsiang himself arrived about the 10th. another of the sudden and totally unexpected changes in the situation to which the public in this country have become so accustomed during the past six months. On the evening of Saturday, the 10th January, General Kung Pang-to, one of Ch'i Hsieh-yuan's principal lieutenants who still commanded some of the latter's former forces stationed in Chapei adjoining the international settlement, moved his troops out to attack those of Chang Yun-ming in the neighbourhood of the arsenal. That night or on the following day Ch'i Hsieh-yuan himself left his house in the international settlement to resume the command of his former forces in order to join with Sun Ch'uan-fang in the attack on Chang Yun-ming, the local The latter's troops were overwhelmed representative of the Peking Government. in a few hours' fighting, the bulk seeking refuge and becoming interned in the French concession, when they were subsequently shipped off without trouble to Tsingtao under the auspices of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce. The middle of January thus found Ch'i again in control of Shanghai and preparing to advance against Lu Yung-hsiang at Nanking, an exact reversal of the situation existing when the civil war had opened five months before with an outbreak of hostilities between Chi's controlling Nanking and Lu controlling Chekiang and Shanghai.
4. In the meantime, Mukden reinforcements were being rushed down the Tien-tsin-Pukow line to Lu's assistance, until a Manchurian army some 40,000 strong, including a regiment of Russians, was massed at Nanking and advancing along the railway towards Shanghai. The first clash took place near Chinkiang, which was succesfully occupied by the Mukden troops with little serious resistance. This success foreshadowed the course of the campaign, which resulted in the gradual collapse and disintegration of Chi's forces in the face of the almost uninterrupted advance of Lu's Manchurian troops and their Russian auxiliaries under the command of Generals Wu Kuang-hsin (Minister of War) and Chang Tsung-ch'ang (general officer commanding one of the Fengtien armies), two of Chang Tso-lin's
[890 hh-2]
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