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conversation on this occasion, as also at the
dinner party on the previous evening, was entirely
During this conference Marshal Li
in Cantonese.
said to me that the settlement of the Tsinan-fu
incident came under the jurisdiction of the
Foreign Office at Nanking, and that he was not
conversant with the matter; that the forces of
Marshal Chang Chung-chang now in Shantung were
not large, and that, according to telegraphic
information from the north, they had been
repeatedly defeated by the Nationalists.
serious trouble was to be expected from
Chang Chung-chang.
No
He said that the dispute
between the Nanking Government and Wuhan Branch
Political Council, regarding the dismissal of
Lo Tik-ping by the latter, arose through a
misunderstanding due to the respective
General Li Tsung-jen, as
administrative powers of the Nanking Government
and the Branch Political Councils not being
clearly defined.
Chairman of the Wuhan Branch Political Council,
finding irregularities in the acts of Lo Tik-ping
in that he aimed at controlling the finances of
Hunan and also protected the Communists, had at
once dismissed Lo from Office, so as to forestall
Li Tsung-jen had to act on his own
trouble.
responsibility, in order to carry out the
Kuomintang policy of purifying the country,
eliminating Communism, protecting the Party and the
Nation and maintaining peace and order. Li had
submitted