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post. It seems to have been his ambition to establish under his own leadership a Government for the provinces of South China on a federal basis. Neither his claim to the post of Vice-Generalissimo nor his federal policy was acceptable to the Govern ment at Canton, and when his troops, under General Lung Yun, entered Kuangsi from the west and occupied Lungchow, Nanning and Poseh, General Fan Shil sheng, a native of Yunnan Province, but a bitter enemy of Tang Chi-yao, persua the Canton Government to allow him to lead his troops into Kuangsi to oppose T'ang's advance. This he effectively did, the Yunnanese forces being compelled, after a severe defeat early in June, to retreat to their native province, into which they were pursued by General Fan's forces, who, advancing by way of Poseh, succeeded in cutting the railway to Yunnan-fu. General Tang Chi-yao made preparations to escape from Yunnan-fu by aeroplane, when, on the 20th and 21st August, his troops inflicted a defeat on their adversaries in the south-east of the province, and forced them to retreat into Kuangsi.
14. At Canton itself strained relations between the local government and the Yunnan-Kwangsi commanders in the city led to fighting during May and June, which ended in the defeat on the 12th June of the Yunnanese troops, who were subjected during the next few weeks to the most brutal treatment by the infuriated populace of Canton.
15. Freed from internal dissension, the Cantonese now turned eagerly to join in the anti-British agitation, which had gathered fresh impetus after the riot at Hankow on the 11th June. An account of the development of that movement at Canton, which culminated in the incident referred to ever since in the Chinese press as the
Shakee massacre, will be found in this report in the section dealing with the repercussion in Canton of the Shanghai incident of the 30th May.
16. A new Government, known as the Nationalist Government," was organised at Canton in July, but was dominated by M. Borodin and other Russian advisers, and by the Strike Committee. On the 20th August, Liao Chung-kai, one of the chief members of the executive committee, chief of the Labour Department of the Kuomintang, and for some time in 1924 Civil Governor of Kwangtung, who The Government was was the real power behind the strike, was murdered. disintegrated, and a coup d'Etat on the 25th August transferred in effect the executive power to two men, General Chiang Chung-sheng (Chiang Kai-shek), commander of the Whampoa Military Academy and garrison commissioner of Canton, and his civil coadjutor, Wang Ching-wei. A series of arrests followed of prominent adherents of the Kuomintang who were thought to be wavering in their allegiance. Genera! Hsu Chung-chih, who had already announced his resignation from the post of Commander-in-chief of the Canton army, fled at the end of September to Shanghai. just in time to escape arrest. A "mandate" issued on the 20th September by three commissioners, Messrs. C. C. Wu, Wang Ching-wei and Tan Yen k'ai, announced that the command of the Canton army had been given to General Chiang Kai-shek. General Hu Han-min, who had succeeded Sun Yat-sen as chief of the Kuomintang and head of the Canton Government, was suspected of complicity in the murder of
After Liao Chung-kai, and surrendered himself to General Chiang Kai-shek. harassing trial by a military court, nothing definite appears to have been proved against him, and, in consideration of his long services in the cause of the Kuomintang. he was permitted to proceed, virtually as a prisoner, on a special mission to Russia via Vladivostok, accompanied by the secretary of the Canton Military Council and two cadets of the Whampoa Military Academy. He was given an effusive welcome at Vladivostok and at Moscow. The alleged object of his visit was to see Soviet Russia and to judge for himself the advisability of introducing communistic methods
into China.
17. General Ch'en Ch'iung-ming's second campaign against Canton was launched in September, in the form of an attack on Chaochow and Swatow. Swatow was captured on the 18th September, much to the relief of the foreign, and especially of the British, residents of that port, who had for several months been enduring dictatorship of the worst elements in a violently hostile population. Unfortunately General Ch'en's campaign very soon showed signs of collapse. Lack of funds. bad leadership (General Ch'en himself never left Hong Kong) and bad organisation led. Waichow was taken by the to the complete defeat of the anti-Canton party. Whampoa cadets under General Chiang Kai-shek on the 14th October, and, after steady advance, Swatow was reoccupied by the Canton troops on the 6th November By the end of the year the whole of Kwangtung was under the control of the Govern
ment at Canton.
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West China.
18. In Szechuan the chief political event during the year was the defeat in August of General Yang Sen (a former adherent of Wu Pei-fu) by a strong combina tion of generals headed by Liu Hsiang. General Yang had been confirmed by a presidential mandate (the 7th February) in his appointment as Tupan, or Military Governor, of the province, and his régime was generally regarded as one of the best seen in Szechuan for many years. However, the civil war which has harassed this province for so long was renewed in April, the bone of contention being the control of the salt revenues at Tzuliutsing. General Yang gained the upper hand in the struggle, and obtained military control of the province west of a line drawn north from Luchow, on the Yang-tsze. The opposing forces were confined to a small area round Chungking, when an armistice was called by General Liu Hsiang, and a con- ference of generals was held at Chungking to attempt to settle the future government of the province. The conference failed, and hostilities broke out again in the middle of July, which ended in the defeat of General Yang, who was forced to abandon Chengtu and finally to leave the province. The defeat appears to have been mainly due to the defection of his generals. Another military conference was called, which came to an end on the 30th August, and at which the district monthly salt revenues were apportioned among eight or nine generals. This was followed by a second con- ference in December to arrange for the provincial administration and to discuss ways and means of raising funds. By the end of the month some 150 delegates had arrived, but up to that time the conference had been mainly occupied in settling the rule of procedure.
19.
Civil War.
When Shanghai was occupied by General Sun Ch'uan-fang's troops on the 16th October, General Yang Yu-t'ing received telegraphic orders from Mukden to retreat. A remarkable collapse of the Fengtien forces followed, and in the short space of two and a half months Marshal Chang Tso-lin, though he still held Mukden and part of the Peking-Mukden Railway, had lost Kiangsu, Anhui and Chihli provinces, as well as the Jehol district. Deserted by one of his most trusted generals, Kuo Sung-lin, commanding the 9th Division at Luanchow (on the Peking-Mukden Railway), who went over to the enemy with some 40,000 troops and advanced along the railway towards Mukden, Marshal Chang was contemplating taking refuge in fight and abandoning Manchuria to his rival. He was induced, nevertheless, to make a last and desperate effort to save the position. On the 23rd December the troops loyal to him met those under Kuo Sung-lin near Hsinmintun, by the Liao River, in a short and decisive engagement. The stake at issue was the future control of Manchuria. Thanks to a bold stroke by the general commanding Marshal Chang's cavalry, who succeeded in getting behind General Kuo's forces and attacking them in the rear, the latter were defeated, and Kuo himself was captured and executed. Whilst this struggle was proceeding, in favour of the rengtien forces, Tien-tsin, which had been held for some weeks for Chang by General Li Ching-lin against the advance of the Kuomin army from three sides, was captured by the latter, and General Li had to retreat southwards with his troops. In Shantung, the Fengtien Military Governor, General Chang Tsung-chang, succeeded in holding at bay the forces threatening to attack Tsinan-fu from the south, while in the north of the province a struggle with the Kuomin troops for the possession of Tehchow, on the Tien-tein-Pukow Railway, left that place in his hands. The end of the year saw the formation at Peking of a new Cabinet, composed chiefly of moderate Kuomintang elements under the premiership of Mr. Hsu Shih-ying (see annual report. 1922. "Who's Who," No. 7). General Sun Yüeh, Military Governor of Shensi, was appointed Military Governor of Chibli (the 25th December). Marshal Feng Yü-hsiang resigned his post of Tupan of North-West Frontier Defence and Tupan of Kansu, these posts being given to two of his own generals. Shansi, which had kept out of the civil war, remained under the governorship of General Yen Hsi-shan. Shantung was still held by General Chang Tsung-chang. The Central Government, recognising a fait accompli, appointed General Sun Chuan-fang Military Governor of Kiangsu (the 26th November), but he refused to accept the title and continued to style himself the Commander-in-chief of the Five Allied Provinces (Kiangsu, Anhui, Kiangsi, Fukien and Chekiang). He was at the time Military Governor of Chekiang Province. In Anhui, General Teng Ju-cho, commanding the allied Kiangsi troops, ahowed an inclination to accept from the Government at Peking the title of Tupan of
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