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(No. 228.) Sir,
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ANNEX II.
Mr. Palairet to Mr. Austen Chamberlain.-(Received June 12.)
Peking, April 6, 1925. WITH reference to the China Command Intelligence Diary for the month of September 1924, paragraph 85B, I have the honour to transmit to you herewith copy of a report I have received from the military attaché to this Legation containing interesting particulars in regard to the Whampoa Officers' Training School at Canton,
I have, &c.
MICHAEL PALAIRET.
(Report No. 5.) Sir,
Enclosure.
Colonel Steward to Mr. Palatret.
March 21, 1925. I HAVE the honour to submit the following information on the Whampoa Canton Military School-
The following notes were given to me by a Chinese official in Amoy, who said he was certain of his information:--
The principal of the school is Chiang Chih-shih.
The initial expenses for the foundation of the establishment amounted to 1 million dollars, which sum was furnished by the Soviet agent in Canton. The monthly upkeep expenses amount to 200,000 dollars, which also are provided
by the Soviet agent.
There are many unsalaried Russian teachers.
Several thousand student soldiers in the school.
The arms and training equipment were purchased from Japan and the Soviet.
The following information on the Whampoa school was procured by the General Staff China Command, and was published in the China Command Intelligence Summaries:-
Whampoa Oficers' Training School.
The following information has been received from what is believed to be a reliable
source:
The school was founded by the Communist section of the Kuomintang for the purpose of providing officers for the Kuomintang forces. A contribution was made by the Soviet Government to the school on its foundation.
Staff-The commandant of the school is a Chinese, who is assisted by a staff of foreign and Chinese instructors. Of the foreign instructors two are Russians and two Japanese. The Russian instructors supervise the teaching of Communism; the Japanese are responsible for military education and training. The Chinese staff, which is mostly foreign-trained, instructs in medical and engineering subjects.
Organisation. There are 660 resident students, who, for administration purposes, are divided into four companies, each commanded by a military officer assisted by a second in command.
Training. The course lasts six months. Apart from scholastic studies students undergo theoretical and practical military training. Great attention is paid to bayonet fighting. A certain number of students, about 300, specialise in medical and engineering subjects.
L
Equipment. The students are armed with the 79-mm. rifles recently com mandeered by the Kuangtung Government from the Merchant Volunteers (Note 8.S.
Hav" Arms Consignment. There are three machine guns at the school
Notes on
the Students. The students are mostly intellectuals, and include graduates of the Peking University and ex-officials. They come from all over China, a certain number coming from Mongolia. There are only five students from Kuangtung Province at the school.
In confirmation of or contradiction to the above notes I am able to give my impressions during my visit to the school on the 2nd and 3rd March, 1925.
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Previous to my visit I was informed by Mr. Wade, Commissioner of Chinese Maritime Customs, Hong Kong, that all the money, which he remits to the Canton Government for local Chinese customs, is paid by him direct to the school authorities by order of the Canton Government, which sum is presumed to cover the upkeep expenses of the school.
Locality. The school is divided into two localities. The main school at Whampoa, next to the naval establishment, and the overflow school near North Gate, Canton,
These two portions of the same school are identical in organisation and training, the North Gate school being merely a temporary measure to house the overflow students, who have been accepted to make good the wastage of the local war. North Gate portion of the school consists of hutments with a few permanent buildings, so I could imagine it will soon disappear with the subjugation of the Kuomintang's enemies
The
The Whampoa portion of the school is housed in a permanent building of modern two-storied design, and is divided into an infantry school, from which artillery students are eventually selected, and a medical side, where military training is given.
Object. The object of the school, I was informed, is to provide officers for the Canton national army, so as to train a well-disciplined force for the propagation of the national Kuomintang doctrine. The school instructors deny their adhesion to Bolshevism, though the Kuomintang principles as applied to Canton do not seen to fall far short of the Bolshevik ideal.
The only signs of Bolshevism to be observed were a small picture of Lenin's head with a fish's body swimming valiantly in a sea, probably of capitalism, to illustrate his uphill fight against his enemies; also a large photo of a good-looking well-dressed European, who, I was informed, was the captain of the Soviet gunboat that anchored off the college in the autumn of 1924, and who supplied certain much-needed training armament to the college. The behaviour of the officers of this Russian Soviet gunboat was only marred by their public amours performed on the hill behind the school, with the Russian women who were passengers during the stay in Whampoa
Instructional Staff.--The staff appears to be divided into civil and military. Buth wear uniform without rank badges, but with the National party emblem, though the only civilian I was introduced to had grey golf stockings instead of leggings.
The civilian was a Cantonese, but the military instructors were all from the north, and some of them could not understand Cantonese. Military instruction is entirely given in Mandarin, both by the officers and the petty officers. On enquiring if all their students were of the north, I was informed that the secondary schools in China teach Mandarin, and so that even the southern students could understand the instruction, having been selected for their intelligence. I was also informed that, as the students came from all over China, it was thought better to give the instruction in the most used dialect.
The civilian staff deals with political questions, while the military staff has no say in civil instruction. The military staff consisted at my visit of about six officers and thirty petty officers, but as many were away at the front it is presumed that the normal staff is greater. In addition to the medical instructors I only saw one technical expert, the wireless officer, who, having been trained in the Japanese wireless school, appeared to be efficient. His installation was Japanese, though British and American wireless apparatuses were also noticeable in his room. Judging by the size of his room, I should immagine that the installation was used more for communication than for instruction, nor did I notice any field wireless apparatus.
The majority of the instructors are graduates of the Peking military school. Mr. Chiang Chib-shih was away at the front, as were the Russian professors, which appears to point to the fact that the Russian staff is military rather than civil
I was not definitely informed that there existed a Russian staff, but from Russian maps on the walls of the class-rooms I drew my own conclusions.
Instruction The students are treated as cadet soldiers, and are instructed in squads of about fifteen strong, the instructor keeping the same squad throughout the period of instruction.
After a fortnight they are given rifles, which shows that they are above the average Chinese in intelligence, as they learn to keep still in the ranks and to move with precision in a much shorter space of time than the average Chinese recruit. The usual length of stay in the school is one year, after which, with the exception of certain carlets selected for artillery, the students are drafted into units as platoon commanders. The most advanced students that I saw drilling had only five mouths' instruction, as the older students had all been released for service at the front.
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