113
Marshal Sun is an ambitious soldier of fortune, who aims at making himself supreme in the wealthy region where he is now War Lord. He does not at the moment see any opportunity of extending the boundaries of his dominion; but he is endeavouring to consolidate his present position and to make himself secure against the attack of any other Chinese War Lord, He does not tolerate communism. or Soviet propaganda, because he regards both as dangerous to his authority. If, however, he were hard put to it, as have been other Chinese War Lords, I do not suppose that he would scruple to accept Russian help and pay lip-service to Bolshevism, in order to obtain such help.
12.
A second fairly cohesive fragment is the Kuangtung Province, now under the dictatorship of General Cheung Kai-shek. The ostensible form of goverment is, however, of the Soviet type and is supported by the Bolshevists with men, money and munitions of war. There is an unstable alliance between Kuang- tung and the adjacent province of Kuang-hsi. These two provinces, under the Manchu dynasty, formed the Liang Kuang viceroyalty: but the language spoken in Kuanghsi is not Cantonese and the cohesion between the two provinces is now of the slightest. General Tang Shang-chi, who controls for the moment the south of Hunan province, is also claimed as an ally of the Canton Soviet, which further professes to have some understanding with the authorities of Kuei-chou province, a sort of "No Man's Land, But the only person who really counts in this very loose southern confederacy is General Cheung Kai-shek, who is not a Cantonese but a native of Chekiang province. His position is very pre- carious and depends entirely on the doubtful loyalty of his subordinary military commanders. I believe that he is endeavour- ing to reach an undertaking with Marshal Sun Ch'an-fang.
13.
A
A third regional group is under the control of Marshal Wu P'ei-fu, who dominates Hupeh and the northern part of Human (formerly these two provinces were the Hukuang viceroyalty), the whole of the province of Honan and part of the province of
Chihli
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