2
·
1 48
be found in the fact that the leaders of the extreme
party are men of education and very possibly of wealth. Some of them are consciously swimming with the tide, in the hope of being carried to high places or at any rate of getting safely to shore with a certain amount
of loot. But it is characteristic of revolutions that
their leaders cannot see that Liberty, Equality and
Fraternity are incompatible with leadership. (Where
all are equalized at the lowest denomination how shall
one set himself, or be set, in authority above the rest?)
Accordingly, if Russia is not forced to withdraw her
agents, Comrades Eugene Ch'ên and Hsü-chien will find
themselves ousted later on by Wong Kam-yuen, the pork-
butcher, and Ko Tsam, the scullion, and they in turn
by lower dregs deliriously succeeding one another in
directing chaos. Something of this kind seems already
to be taking place, for So Shiu-cheng, the whilom
Chairman of the Canton Strike Committee, is now dubbed
"Minister".
Enclo No. be
2. A sample of the programme of the extremists
is given in the enclosed extracts from a report on
current events furnished by Mr. Hedgeland, the Commissioner
of Maritime Customs at Canton, and dated the 7th April.
The Labour Law demanded is no doubt the Soviet Labour
Code, a copy of which I have recently obtained from
Vladivostok and am having translated.
3. If it is possible to under-rate the malevolence
of the Extremists, it is no less possible to over-rate
the benevolence of the Moderates. The latter are at the
moment holding Canton with a firm hand, and it is stated
that General Li Chai-sum returned from Shanghai to Canton
on the 12th April. But that does not prevent the Canton
Commissioner
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.