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3.
Meanwhile, Wong K'ei-cheung appears to have
lost no time in consolidating his position. One of his first objectives was the Arsenal at Shek Cheng, and he is said to have secured a large supply of rifles and ammunition at Bocca Tigris. With these and with the weapons taken from the troops of Wong Shiu-hung in
Canton he is renorted to have armed the semi-bandit
forces of the Peasants' Organizations, the strike pickets, and such other outlaws as he can gather together, including some of Chan Kwing King's soldiers.
of fortune.
4.
This "Nung T'uen" or Peasants' Organization
is a half-political, half-criminal body with communistic tendencies which originated in its present form during the struggle between Chan Kwing-ming and the "red"
administration of Canton. The story goes that Borodin on his arrival in South China found some difficulty in grafting the conception of the class war on to existing conditions. He found the proletariat without difficulty, but there was no clearly defined body of capitalists to set up as the enemy. An enemy, however, was essential and after some discussion he and his Chinese disciples decided to enlist the village elders and gentry in that capacity on the ground that they were reactionaries and
land-owners. Thus the Peasants' Organization was
instituted and once formed, grew rapidly and proved very profitable to its promoters. They preached the doctrine
known as 3, 3, 4, that is to say the rent formerly paid by cultivators was to be divided thirty per cent, to the society, thirty per cent, to the tenant, and the remaining forty per cent, to the landlord.
13
The gentry have not
yielded