COPY
Shanchal No. 119 of 26th July, 1923.
sir,
390
With reference to my despatch No.112 (5762/23) of
the 20th instant, I have the honour to report that there
is every indication that the recent assembling of anti-
Chihli Members of Parliament at this port coupled with
the possible arrival of the Ex-President Li Yan-hung
18 straining the relations between the pro-Chihli Tuchun
of Kiangsu and the Anfu Tupan of Chekiang to a degree
which may endanger the continuance of the truce hitherto
existing between the wo provinces.
It wwll be remembered that when Ly Yung-hsiang was
promoted to the Tuchunship of Cheklang in 1919, he was
succeeded as Defence Commissioner of Shanghai by General
Ho Feng-lin, one of his own subordinates, and when the
Anfu party were defeated in the North in 1920, General
Ho was allowed to remain at Shanghai and though. Wu P'el-fu contemplated his expulsion last year other counsels pre- vailed, with the result that today the Shanghai district of Kiangsu with its revenues, arsenal and many strategic advantages remains under the military control of Crekiang and divorced from the control of Nanking.
This state of affairs has naturally rankled in the mind of the Kiangsu Tuchun, but the pressure of commercial opinion anxious to avoid local hostilities at all costs, and the Chinese genius for compromise have enabled an armed truce to be maintained.
Recently the increasing identification of the Kiangsu Tuchun with the Chihli party and of the Chekiang Tupan with the Southern party, the increased purchasing of arms by both sides, and the suborning of a portion of the local Navy (reported in my despatch No.60 of 20th April last), have rendered the situation more delicate and now the prospect of the anti-Chihli Members of Parliament with or without
the
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