The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. THE WAR IN CHINA.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 104, 4 May 1922, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

THE WAR IN CHINA.

For the cause that lacks assistant*, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can. do. THURSDAY, MAY 4, 1922. I =

The civil war now ra-g'.ng in China is merely a symptom of the chaotic conj dition to which thi.- unfortunate country has been reduced during the past decade. The leaders of the rival anuica, Chang Tsae Lin -and Wii Pei Fu are two of the 'tuchumri" or military governors who have been for some time past com- ; .peting for ascendancy in Xorth and : Central China. Of these, Wu Pei Fit i is, by all account*, the more publicspirited and patriotic. In earlier life Ihe was a strong advocate of » national j policy, and he has always supported the J principle of local home rule against the j despotic authority 60 long centralized at I Peking. But after he became Governor Jof Hupeh, the great central province j through which the Ynngtse run?, he , I adapted n rtrongly repressive pro- ] gramme which, though it may have been justified by the necessity for restoring order, has certainly shaken the faith of many of his former friends and 'has ! alienated the macs of the people from him. On the other hand Chang Tsao Lin, the Governor of Manchuria, is little more than a military adventurer, nnd it! is alleged by his opponents that hie sudden attempt to overthrow the Peking Government U due not so much to his own personal ambitions as to the I insidious activities of the Japanese who: are stirring up strife in North China *oj as to find a pretext for refusing to withdraw their military forces from Shantung and thus retain hold on this cheri-hed possession a little longer. Unfortunately the Government which nominally rules the greater part of China from Peking is neither strong nor trustworthy. The President of the Republic, Hsu Shili-Gliang, was elected by a Parliament which -vva.- not legally constituted, and which has since been dissolved for that very reason. Moreover, 'he has completely forfeited the confidence of hrs people by the part that ! Jie played in the highly disoredita'ble negotiations with Japan during the war. He is accused of sacrificing the interests of the countrj r Tjy accepting the notorious Twenty-one Demands, and he U charged generally with "impairing the independence and integrity of China and subjecting Chinese economic resourcos to «n exploitation nnd observing the suuv! policies of domination.' . As a result of this "moral disqualified-

tion" of the nominal President of the Republic, a great deal of importance attaches to the claims put forward on •behalf of Sun Vat Sen, the groat patriotic reformer who rules Southern China from Canton. According to the supporters of Sun Vat Sen he is the one and only constitutionally elected President of China; and during the eomjxirati • ily short period for -which he has ruled in "the two Kwangs," Jie has certainly done a great deal to justify his claims. "The Sun Vat Sen Government in ita local aspect," says an American observer, 'has already 'become a great achievement in aeli-icalis-ation"; for it has, in a few years, efl'eeted miracles by establishing law and order, putting down militarist tyranny, abolishing "graft," a.nd providing a firm and secure 'ba«ie for the development of a sound political and national life. For these reasons, when China was requested to send delegates to the ' Washington Conference, the Sun Vat ! Sen Government protested that China ' could not bo constitutionally represented by the spokesmen of the usurpers ■who had seized power at Peking, and j that South China would regard any ! obligations entered into by these Chinese delegate* as null and void. It ! is, of course, difficult for the Powers to differentiate in such a ca*e, or to give ito Sun Vat Sen an official precedence which he has not yet been able to assert for himself over the man who by force or fraud has gained pos.°e.«ion of the ■heritage of the Manchu emperors. But sooner or later the Powers will be compelled to take cognisance of the fact tha-t the great principle of local self-govern-ment, for which Wu Pei Fu. and Sun Vat Sen arc in different ways contending, must be upheld, if ever China is ■to find peace. The days of centralised despotism are passed for over, and even the disintegration of this huge Repulblic into three or four independent States would be a long step toward the desired J goal. Incidentally, we may observe, the I misfortunes that.have overtaken China ! have rendered all the foreign Powers intensely unpopular there, and there are signs that the Europeans have some J reason to fear a recurrence of the tragic happenings that marked the national rebellion known aa the Boxer rUing ! over twenty years ago. Xo doubt ade- | quats precautions will be taken in good ■ time. But there is some ground for i 'bops that, if the Ppwers will cea--<j to I exploit China and to sacrifice her j interests for their own ends, this great j people, under the guidance of such j leaders as Sun Vat Sen, will yet be able !to work out their own salvatiop i