Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 1945. UNHAPPY CHINA.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 65, Issue 267, 22 August 1945, Page 2

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 1945. UNHAPPY CHINA.

Cable messages received in the last few days have given a glimpse of what is happening' in China, and there appears to be every possibility of civil war breaking out. The present position has been brought about as the result of the rapid growth ot the Communist forces, particularly during the war, and China may revert to the unhappy position which prevailed for so long. Ever since 1911 the country ihas been torn by internal strife. Not only did the South fight the North, but various Marshals and Generals set up Governments of their own in the provinces and waged war on each other. The Kuomintang organisation, came into being in 1923, being organised by the Russian Borodin, and Russia took a great interest in the Chinese revolution which the Communists of that time regarded as the clue to the overthrow of international imperialism. In 1914 Chiang Kaishek emerged as a national leader, tie defeated his rivals in the South, marched to the North and finally united China under his banner. In 1927 he broke with the Communists who set up a Soviet Government in two southern provinces, carrying out racial reforms. By 1932 internal struggle had begun to ebb, but then came aggression from outside, with Japan seizing* Manchuria. The history of the country from this point on is fairly well known, but it now seems that the Communists find in the overthrow of Japan an opportunity to assert themselves. What kind of regime arc the Communists seeking ? An American correspondent, Harrison Forman, declares: “The Chinese Communists are not Communists not according to the Russian definition of the term. They do.not, at the present time, either advocate or practise communism.” He quotes Mao Tse-tung, the party leader, as stating that they have given up radical agrarian revolution and stand for a reformed relationship between landlord and tenant. Political}’, too, Mao said, 'his followers differ from Russia in that “we do not advocate a collectivism, that discourages private initiative. Under a reciprocal arrangement we will welcome foreign investments in trade and industry. We are (economically) a backward country and so have a great need for foreign investments.” That the Communists do not expect to yield up their territory to the present Kuomintang regime, was emphasised by General Chu Teh in a recent statement. The anti-Japanese partisan bases “will remain as constituted to-day,” he said. “They will have a semi-autonomous status, local autonomy being necessary because China is a big country and its various regions are in different stages of development. This then is the position as it obtains at the moment, and unless a settlement can be effected rapidly, it may upset relations with Eastern Asia much moie than is generally realised.