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This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL
[F 851/81/10]
No. 1.
[March 8.]
SECTION 2.
Sir B. Alston to Earl Curzon.-(Received March 8.)
(No. 37.) My Lord,
Peking, January 24, 1921. MR. CLIVE'S despatch No. 725 of the 3rd November reported the disappearance from Canton of what had previously been the independent Military Government of the South. and, simultaneously therewith, the issue by the President of the republic of mandates proclaiming reunification and summoning a new Parliament. The first of these documents has remained a dead letter so far as Kuangtung and Yunnan are concerned. Sun Yat Sen, T'ang Shao-yi and Wu Ting-Fang returned to Cauton on the 29th November, and there again formed an independent Military Government, whose authority is recognised by Ch'en Chiung-ming and, nominally at any rate, by T'ang Chi-yao. On the 29th December mandates were issued by Peking appointing Lu Jung-ting Director-General of Kuangtung Frontier Defence and confirming the appointments of his two subordinates, who hold the positions of Military and Civil Governor of Kuangsi. On the following day mandates were issued confirming Liu Ts'un-hou as Military Governor and appointing Hsinug K'o-wn Civil Governor of Szechuan. The return to the Northern fold of those two provinces was thus formally signalled.
Shortly after the expulsion of the Yunnauese from Szechuan the Military Governor of Kueichow entered into negotiations with the Szechuan authorities with a view to his likewise reaching an understanding with the Peking Government. These negotiations were interrupted by the forcible expulsion of the Governor. His successor has resumed efforts to arrive at an understanding with Szechuan, but whether these negotiations result in the return of the province to its allegiance to the Central Goverument depends upon eventualities in Kuangtung, Kuangai and Yunnan province
The situation in Hunan likewise remains unsettled. The popularity of Tan Yen-k'ai, who became Military Governor on the reconquest of the province from the North, did not long survive his efforts to raise the revenue necessary for the upkeep of his forces from a province bled white by the series of Northern and Southern rulers who have succeeded one another as the tide of civil war moved backward and forward. On the 23rd November he handed over charge to General Chao Heng-ti, who, like himself, was in favour of reunion with the North and opposed to the Canton Radicals. Since that date further rebellions have taken place. General Chao, having executed his opponents wholesale, still holds on to his post, but his tenure is precarious and so far no overt act of union with the North has taken place.
In Canton itself the establishment of the new Military Government is believed to be viewed with much disfavour by influential sections of Cantonese, and there is a strong probability that the disagreement known to exist between Ch'en Ch'iung-ming and the Radical clique of Sun Yat Sen and his friends will lead to fighting between the forces owing allegiance to each.
Measures continue to be taken to carry out the mandate convoking a new Parliament. With the best will in the world, elections at a time like the present- with famine raging in North China and internecine warfare still continuing or just suspended in the South-can be but a farce. The opinion is widely held that the Parliament will never meet.
No term has yet been set to the intrigues, mentioned in Mr. Clive's despatch No. 725, arising in connection with the appointment of a successor to the Military Governorship of Kiangsu. These form one out of many possible causes of fighting between the victors, who lately combined to destroy the Anfu clique.
The demand for funds wherewith to nourish the military monster which is devouring this country becomes ever more insistent. Men like Chang Tso-lin and Tsao K'un, who have amassed and invested millions, are at their wits end for ready cash.
The second named has found a temporary source of supply by holding up "famine relief"-until the grain-brought down from Manchuria free of freight for price rises even higher, or by selling it at a profit to foreign relief societies.
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