TROUBLES OF THE EAST.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 303, 22 December 1926, Page 9

TROUBLES OF THE EAST.

"CHINA FOR JHE CHINESE." THE POSITION OF THE FOREIGNER." v STRONG ANTI-BRITISH FEELING. By JAY HAYDEN, Special correspondent of the Auckland "Star" and the North American Newspaper Alliance. , SHANGHAI, September 15. The Chinese political situation is bewildering in its changes. 1 arrived in Peking just as the combination of i Lhang lao-lin, of Mukden, and Wu Peitu, oi Hankow, succeeded in driving the opposition Kuominchun army beyond Uie Nankow Pass. In the succeeding days they pushed on to lvalgan, thus, as it appears, definitely banishing the Christian General, Feng Yu-h'siang, to the barren plains of Mongolia, and ending the war that had raged around iAiKing for piore than two .years. Chang and Wu were definitely in the ascendancy, and predictions.were heard that, if they could avoid quarrelling between themselves, they migJit succeed in forming an effective central government at Peking. 1 arrived in Shanghai after a wuek't journey, delayed by storms along the v-hiim coast, to learn that the Lailtpnese army coming from the south, had captured Wu-chang, jiJst. across the Yang-tse River from Hankow, and not' only seems to have the latter city within its grasp, but is threatening the whole latter Yaug-tse region, including Nankjng and Shanghai. A Serious Situation. The "North China Dairy News," which is generally regarded as the official organ of British interests in China, declares in its leading article that •Shanghai is "on the verge of a situation the seriousness of which has' not been paralleled in many years," and all of the English-printed newspapers display in large type an article from the "Daily Telegraph," of London, urging , foreign armed intervention as warranted by the "ghastlines3 of the tragedy at present being enacted in China." The' declaration by the "Telegraph" is treated as specially important, because it is added to urgings in the same tenor previously by two other great organs of British opinion, the "Times" and the "Morning Post." All of which is by way of pomt 1 ing out that the hope of peace and order inspired by the victory of Chang and Wu in the north'was stillborn. To the foreign financial interests in China, the question as to who controls the capital at Peking is of relatively small importance. The real centres of trade are Mukden- and^Dairen, 1 -in Manchuria;' Shanghai, Nanking* anU Hankbw, which dominate- the trade of the great river artery, the Yang-tse, and its tributaries; and Hongkong and Canton, in the south. The boycott-of Hongkong, maintained by the ""Ghiheste'in and around Canton i'or moVe than a year past, was the first thing to- shake' to its very foundation the complacency of the British and other foreign-business interests.in the Treaty Ports. Now it is these same Cantonese that are at the door of Hankow, threatening to cut the, line of trade with Shanghai, just as they have done' ■with Hongkong. The whole zone of British trade in China is in grave danger, and, with t'.ie -possible exception of Manchuria, where the: very efficient Japanese railway, police supplement the .powder st Chang Tlo-lin,. foreign interests elsewhere seem little more secure. In the British: steamer which brought mc from Vancouver to Yokohama, the Chinese 'crew, in their . quarters below" decks, one night' engaged in what appeared to be a. howling matc'i. They kept up a terrific din for hours. "In the good old days we would go down and cane them, but now we can only let them howl," said the British ship's officer. "Orders are that we are not to lay a hand on them." -Mobbed by Scores of Junks. When our small combination freight and passenger ship entered Chefoo harbour, she was literally mobbed by scores of Chinese junks, bearing freight sufficient to fiH'her available capacity twice over. Perhaps half of the freight consisted of non-perishables, bales of merchandise, bottled goods, and the like, and the other half was fruit and vegetables which it was absolutely essential to get to the Shanghai market if they were to be saved from being spoilt. The vessel's agents desired to take the perishable freight, and leave the nonperishable, but several big junks, loaded with the latter, had succeeded in reaching the ship's side first. The ship refused to take the non-perishable freight, and the jun,kmen as firmly refused to move. For nearly six hours the loading was held up, and it was the shipping company that finally capitulated. The loading of the non-perishable freight was ordered. Indeed, the ship was completely turned over to the Chinese junk men, to fight among themselves as to which particular cargo should go aboard, and a scene of indescribable confusion ensued; The vessel' was not permitted to sail until not only the hold, but every inch of Heck space, was piled high with baskets, many of which were washed overboard in the sharp blow that came the next day at sea. ' "We cannot cross these Chinamen," said Captain Christianson, the skipper of the coasting vessels . "There was a time when we would have waded in and clubbed {hem off the ship, but not these days. They have their own way of doing'things, and the policy now'is to let them do as they please. They force this cargo on us, and all we can do is take it, and then, if we find we are overladen, toss it overboard." The foreigners were cold to the Christian general while he controlled Peking, because he was suspected of sympathising with the boycotters. . He protected all foreign individuals and foreign property within his territory, but he permitted agitators from Russia and elsewhere to preach in favour of-China for the Chinese. It was, the same sort of talk that 'preceded the trouble at Hongkong: Feng was driven out, his friends say, as a result of the favouritism of foreigners- towards - his opponents. Wu and Chang are conceded to be bandits in the sense that they prey upon the people without even so much as a promise of public benefit, but they are favoured by the foreigners because they put down anti-foreign agitators with a ruthless hand. , The Knominchiin and Knomintang are alike in that they proceed,on , a fheorv oT "China for the Chinese." They are pro-Chinaman and anti-foreign in their' professions and. also in- their practices to the : extent that they have been charged from time to time with offences against white men and yet they are accused of shooting their own countrymen in the civilian mass. Chang and . Wu and the others' of their kind are pro-; foreign in this respect, that-they are ■ -.-.■.' ■•■ _; -j- , ..' ' ■■ -'• •'

exceedingly solicitous not to offend any foreign individual or business interest and they are anti-Chinese inasmuch as they rob their countrymen without limit and shoot them frequently into fhe bargain, . The disconcerting fact is that the idea of "China for the Chinese" does not down. Suppress it in one comer, as has just occurred in the Peking district, and it breaks out in another place with fresh virulence, as in the case of the rapid Cantonese advance through the Yang-tse valley. There- is even a suspicion growing in the minds of some of the bankers of Shanghai that the Chinese- people generally are inclined to support the idea of restoring their country to themselves, and that it is for this reason that the present trouble in China is so hard to put down.