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Borodin and Hsu Chien. At this distance it is difficult to get at the facts, and you will doubtless have received more reliable information from Hankow, but it may be of interest to record the views which have been expressed to me by Mr. Robert S. Norman, who has recently returned to Canton. Mr. Norman, who is an American, was for many years the legal adviser and close personal friend of Dr. Sun Yat-sen. He has, I understand, always been well disposed towards the British, and did a good deal to allay the excitement aroused in the city immediately after the Shakee shooting affair of June 1925, a fact which was, I believe, acknowledged in despatches by Sir James Jamieson. Mr. Norman is himself a member of the Kuo Min-tang, and, although he holds no official position at the moment, and is in Canton on private business, he is in close touch with General Li Chai-sum and the leading local officials, and is in correspondence with General Chiang Kai-shek, of whom he holds a very high opinion. He told me that General Chiang had had enough of Communist inter- ference with his military plans, and that he was calling a conference of Kuo Min-tang leaders at his headquarters in Nanchang with a view to defining and limiting the position of the Communists in the Nationalist party and getting rid of the Russians. General Li Chai-sum, the real ruler of this province, was, he said, a loyal adherent of Chiang Kai-shek, to whom he referred for instructions in all matters of importance. His chief of staff, Ma Wen-che, had just left for the North to attend the Nanchang Conference. Mr. Norman, who evidently holds a brief for Chiang Kai-shek, appeared to regard him as the only true exponent of Sun Yat-sen's principles, and the sole hope of a moderate Nationalist policy as against the Communist and Russian influence, which had seized control of the party machine.
5. The civil officials, such as Eugene Chen, T. V. Soong and Sun Fo, he considered to be mere politicians and time-servers, who knew which side their bread was buttered, and who clung to the Russians because they had no other support or following. He stated that Eugene Chen had more principles than the others and Sun Fo none at all. Sun Fo, he said, had promoted the right wing opposition Kuo Min-tang group in Shanghai at the end of 1925, and had collected funds for the purpose in America. Subsequently he had deserted them for the party in power in Canton. He was wanted by the latter because of his name (he is, of course, the son of the late Sun Yat-sen), but he is regarded with suspicion by his present associates, and has to be ultra-red to atone for his previous disaffection; hence his violent speeches.
6. There is a tendency on the part of foreigners to attach political labels to Chinese politicians and to classify them individually as moderate or extremist, right or left, Communist or Conservative, &c., and the same foreigners are constantly being puzzled and disconcerted because the people so labelled do not run true to form The truth is that the Chinese who now fill the political stage are actuated in their groupings much more by personal attraction or animosity than by political ideals, and are quite ready to be either extreme or moderate as may suit their purpose for the time being. Sun Fo is an unscrupulous wind-bag of this type, and C. C. Wu is another. No more bitter and violent invective has been heaped on the British people during all this anti-foreign campaign than was emitted by C. C. Wu during his tenure of office in Canton, but fortunately he was such a poisonous person to deal with that his own colleagues could stand him no longer, and he was summarily ejected by General Chiang Kai-shek. He fled to Shanghai via Macao, where he has since heen intriguing against the Canton Government from the safety of the French concession. He is now entertained as the guest of honour by the Union Club, and impresses the Shanghai community with the sweet reasonableness of his speeches and the moderation with which he sets forth the Nationalist aspirations.
7. Men like T. V. Soong, the Minister of Finance, and his brother-in-law, H. H. Kung, the newly-appointed Minister of Industry in Canton, have certainly no desire for Communism, if by that is meant class warfare, mob rule and the commandeering of their wealth by the proletariat. They both come of bourgeois stock and are Christian in religion. Soong is said to have feathered his nest pretty well since becoming Finance Minister, and Kung is already a wealthy man from a banking family, whose wife, well known, I believe, to the Diplomatic Body in Peking, has social ambitions and likes entertaining on a large scale.
8. As a matter of fact, I am informed confidentially that both these men are siding with General Chiang Kai-shek in the present dispute, but those of their colleagues in the Nationalist party who have fallen foul of their own military are obliged to look elsewhere for support, if they are to continue to exist politically, for they have no personal following of their own. Therefore, they cling to the
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Russians and the Communists, who wield the agitation weapon and can raise the inob. General Chiang is demanding the dismissal of the Russians, but his opponents are using the argument that if the Russians are discarded the Nationalist party will be without extraneous support in the event of attack by the Northerners or the imperialist Powers, and that there will be danger of losing the gains already wrested from the latter.
9. Mr. Norman and Mr. Morris Cohen, a Canadian employed in the Central Bank, have been to me and to the American consul-general, evidently on behalf of some of the local officials, to ask if the Powers cannot give Chiang Kai-shek some assurance of their support provided he eliminates the Russians, but they were very vague as to the form such assurance could take. I replied that His Majesty's Govern- ment declined to interfere in Chinese politics, but that they had already publicly made known to both Governments in China their willingness to alter the treaties and to do their best to meet the Nationalist aspirations, and that this offer would not he withdrawn whatever happened to the Russians. I said, however, that I would be glad to communicate by telegraph any considered suggestions made to me personally by any of the political leaders in Canton. I was then told that Mr. Kung would probably come and see me confidentially on the subject, but, although he returned my call and expressed his friendly sentiments, he has not so far seen fit to confide in me to the above extent. I have reason to believe, however, that my American colleague has telegraphed to Mr. MacMurray suggesting that Sun Fo and his party should be approached unofficially in Hankow and assured that they will not lose ground in an international sense by abandoning their Russian connection.
10. In the meantime the Japanese seem, in their own way, to be flirting with the South. The Japanese consul-general is a frequent visitor at General Li Chai-sum's residence, and he is in close touch with Mr. Chen Shu-jen, the Civil Commissioner in the Provincial Government, who was educated in Japan and speaks the language fluently. The Kuo Min-tang is at present represented in Japan by Mr. Tai Chi-tao, a prominent member of the party, and a close friend of Chiang Kai-shek. Mr. Cohen, who knows Mr. Tai personally, tells me that Chiang Kai-shek, having no son of his own, has adopted a son of Mr. Tai by one of his concubines. General Wu Te-chen, formerly chief of police in Canton, is also in Japan. I have seen a private letter from him describing his cordial reception by the Japanese authorities, while recent speeches by Mr. Saburi and Baron Shidehara would indicate that Japan is preparing the ground for an understanding with the Southerners in the event of their triumph.
I have, &c.
J. F. BRENAN.
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