LITTLE DAUGHTER OF THE REVOLUTION

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 70, 15 December 1928, Page 18

LITTLE DAUGHTER OF THE REVOLUTION

A CHINESE JOAN OF ARC

, China’s “Little Daughter of the Revolution” just completed one of the most important diplomatic tasks ever entrusted to a woman by a national government. Sent to Western Europe as the chief of an important political and economic mission, Soume Tcheng, who has done more than any other person.to bring about the emancipation of Chinese womanhood, served virtually as an ambassador to the Occident from a new and modern Orient (says the “Bombay Chronicle”). Now her task has been brought to a successful fruition and she has returned home to aid in the work of building up the state. It was merely another triumph in a life that has been full of triumphs. China’s first (woman lawyer, China’s first woman Judge, representative of her government to the Peace Conference, President of the Court of Justice of Shanghai, and Rector of the Law University of Shanghai, are some of the other honours that, have been bestowed upon this woman. still in her early thirties. When she was just sixteen she enrolled among the revolutionaries, seeking ' to overthrow the Mancini dynasty, and carried bombs and dynamite back and forth across the country, and she has continued an ardent Nationalist ever since, .working unceasingly for their ultimate triumph. Perhaps her greatest work has been the emancipation of Chinese women. She was both the inspiration and the leader of the entire feminine movement in the new republic. writes Vahdah Jeanne Bordeaux in "New York Herald Tribune.” Since 1918 when Soume Tcheng returned home from Europe with fully developed views, the Chinese women have been going forward by leaps and bounds. Her knowledge of conditions outside . her own country and her superior education, as well as her successful revolutionary efforts in the past made Soume . Tcheng respected by the men of high . position and the women of all social classes listened to and profited by her lectures. Little by little those women whose home responsibilities permitted, enrolled for any kind of work that was offered them. And little by little the men accepted them as co-workers, ending by appreciating, even showing partiality for them. She was born on February 22. 1894, in one of the hundred noble Chinese fam- , ilies. , When only fourteen, as is the custom -in China, her engagement to a noble youth of Canton was arranged by her grandmother. At that age she enjoyed the excitement attendant upon the ofiicial announcement of an approaching marriage. However, when the time came for the wedding to take place, little Soume, with one determined effort, threw aside the archaic and cruel traditions of the Chinese and insisted upon being sent to an English school. There she rejnained until 1910. In 1911 she enrolled with the revolutionaries, offering her life to the cause of liberty. Throughout the period of violence, thanks to which the Chinese were able to establish ■ the National Republic after 300 years of oppression, she carried bombs and dynamite on behalf of the cause. Two or three times a week for three months she travelled back and forth between Tientsin and Peking with one 'or two vallises containing empty bombs and dynamite to fill them. Sometimes she wore native clothes, at other times European. Sometimes she went first-class in the luxurious ’ European trains more often in the less comfortable Chinese. One cold day everything seemed to be going exceptionally well. The conductor had gone his rounds without observing her excess luggage (that day she was carrying only dynamite) and she was alone in the compartment. So she settled down to sleep the last hour of the three-hour trip. Suddenly she became conscious of a horrible whistling sound coming from under her feet where the

huge valise was reposing. Ihe explosives were about to go off. She closed the compartment door ami using all her strength, lifted the valise on to the seat. Convinced that she had only a lew minutes to live she stood before the itihil package, waiting lor the explosion. Iler seventeen years had more revolutionaiy courage than pyrotechnic science. Ihe horrible whistling sound was only vapour escaping from the steam pipes that heated the car. When the train arrived at Peking she was met by a friend in the diplomatic service. They went out by the usual side entrance and, unobserved, reached the house where she was in the habit of hiding the bombs. When all was deposited in order, she fainted.. That, however, was her last trip at that time as the Kuamintang had sufficient bombs readj’ for the attack. With the dynastv of the Manehus abolished, Miss Tcheng began her studies in Paris. Upon her return to Canton after the war she was asked by her government to return to Europe on a special mission to enter in direct and constant friendship with the European press. In 1919 she took part in the Peace Conference of Paris advising her government. She was the first Chinese delegate to refuse to sign the Treaty of A ersailles —a refusal which brought much sympathy to the Chinese nation. . In 1929 she returned to China ready to consecrate herself to special work. She expounded the ideas of feminism which she learned in Europe and America, boon she had the entire feminine population of China ready to follow wherever she might lead. . . n . ‘You cannot realise how. interested my people are in the world s progress, Miss Tcheng says emphatically. “Here is an example: I was scheduled to give a lecture in a small town. The lecture was to start at 1 o'clock and was to last an hour. By 11 o’clock 3000 people had gathered about the lecture hall, and it was a very hot day. A 1 o’clock 4000 men and women were in the hall. While I talked there was absolute silence. I saw their attention. I felt the sincerity of their interest, so I continued to talk, extending the lecture to two hours. And everyone was standing! “My people are thirsty for knowledge of the outside world and anxious to do their part for the betterment of conditions in China. We have our traditions; no country has more; but to progress, a person as well as a country must look forward, never backward. China has lived on tradition for centuries.” Now—now we have overcome centuries.” In 1925 Soume Tcheng was again in France, studying at the University of Paris and taking part in many international conferences. She went to Geneva and circulated propaganda for China. The following year she returned to China again and practised law at the mixed court of the French Concessions at Shanghai. When not occupied with law she gave her time to the Nationalist cause. Despite the republic with its incompetent heads,the revolution' with which Dr. Sun Yat Sen planned to overthrow the Manehu terrorism, and which temporarily ended with the declaration of a republic and Dr. Sun Yat Sen's sudden death, the real revolution in all its strength and horror had not broken out. The Chinese who were working with Dr. Sun Yat Sen were inspired by him to continue the struggle until as Nationalists' they could govern as they had for more than twenty years. In ail the disaster and eruptions of those days following the death of Dr. Sun Yat Sen, Soume Tcheng was in the thick of the plots in various disguises, carrying bombs and secret messages from one city to another, more often than not risking her freedom and life for the Cause. When the Nationalist army took Nanking and Shanghai, in the spring of 1927, the National Government of Nanking ap-

pointed her a member of the government of the Keaug-.Suu and Presioent of the Court of Justice of Shanghai. Only a week after beginning her new work the Nationalist government promoted her to the presidency of the Provisional Court of justice ot the International Concession of Shanghai and Hector of the Law University of Shanghai. Then, counting on the personal sympathy she had aroused in Europe as well as her intimate knowledge ot European questions, the government named her to head the political and economic mission to Europe. ‘"The future China,” Soume Tcheng says, "lies in the development of her tremendous agricultural possibilities, in the development of political and diplomatic relations, so that we may take our just place in international affairs.

‘•Our men and women are honest and good. We are ready to learn something from every country. The evolution of the women has gone along parallel with the national fight. There arc women in government positions, and all the women are working. We have a bank at Peking where all the officers and employees from the President down are women. In the Central Association, which covers economical, educational, interior and exterior questions, the heads are women. In educational questions they are doing advanced work. We have many illiterate people in China, neople who arc too poor to "0 to school. Visiting teachers lecture in the work-rooms on all important subjects, illustrating their lectures with the kinema. By this system we hope to make the women ambitious for their children to have the education which has been denied them.” Soume Tcheng talks well and wears her European clothes charmingly. She is a brave, modest woman, with a brilliant mind. One instinctively admires her for what she has done in the past, and believes what she predicts for the future of her country. Her work for her country is almost without precedent, for she is a daughter of a rich and noble family. She was driven by a power somewhat akin to that which drove the Maid of Orleans to fight for France. As revered -lean d’Arc goes down in history beloved and honoured for her bravery, so T think in a lesser way will Soume Tcheng bo revered and honoured by coming generations of Chinese citizens.