CO129-498-8 Canton situation- speeches made by members of the Canton Government- and visit of the Fraternity... 13-1-1926 - 13-1-1926 — Page 11

227

robbers, but we have our Commanders. You may suppose e

are beggars, but we have rifles." This shows the miserable condition of the soldiers. If the burden shouldered by our

people of Kwong Tung was really on account of expenses for

soldiers, we could still acquiesce in it. However, the

greater portion of the money was pocketed by those lawless

generals, and this indeed could by no means be tolerated.

Therefore we made up our mind to centralise the financial

administration and place all the funds of the province

under the control of the Government, so that distribution

might be made with due justice. This greatly aroused the

opposition of the insolent soldiers and wicked generals, and

the present position has only been attained after much

danger.

The pass-words at present used by the Revolutionist

Troops are, "Commandeer no coolies and levy no funds". As you can see, in our expedition to the Eastern District, we have not commandeered a single coolie, nor have we

levied any money without authority. Thus you can believe

that our pass-words are not empty talk. This is the result

of the centralization of the military and financial

administration. I dare not say that the Revolutionist froops have reached a position to afford complete protection

to the people, but at least you, gentlemen, must have found

that at present no house has been illegally seized by

soldiers. Since July last more than 1000 domestic houses

have been given up by the troops under the order of the

Government. This is a thing that could never be done before, but has now actually been carried out. Perhaps in

places remote from Canton, there may still be some cases of

such offence, but as the troops have now gone through a

course of political training, our foundation has been well

laid, and we are sure we shall be able to make further

improvement.

Our