CO129-477 - Public Offices - 1922 — Page 187

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the workings of my mind. In this record we have

clearly displayed the pertinacity with which

"first oust the extre-provincial" has been followed,

while personal ambition was still allowed to have

free play. The goal to which they were striving

could easily have been reached in 1917: it was not

arrived at for three years, during which the Province

suffered hideously, owing to the avarice and personal

greed of the various Szechuan leaders, but when in

August 1920 for three months all combined, the

Szechuanese carried all before them and no meroy

was shown to any of the enemy who fell into their

hands. I am convingəl that the same treatment will

be meted out to the foreigner "when" the

reunification of Szenman is absolutely complete.

This, as I have stated above, may not be for four or

five years.

I now come to the reasons for my conviction that "next oust the foreigner" will beŋnome a definite propaganda directly the Szechuan leaders

are sufficiently nonsolidated to devote their whole attention to frustrating all foreign interests.

As reported before, General Tan Mou-haing once told me that they could arrest and kill any

chinaman in foreign employ without fear of

reprisals as foreign gunboats could not get to

chengtu. In momentary temper he expressed what many

of the leading authorities feel, namely that they

have the whiphand and that the foreigner in

Szechuan is on sufferance: he has his uses in

time of trouble so for the present leave him alone.

The immunity of the foreigner during all the

recent