MAKING THE YELLOWS RED.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3382, 11 July 1927, Page 7

MAKING THE YELLOWS RED.

A TALK WITH BORODIN. (By C. J. Ketchum.) Michael Markovitch Borodin paced the floor of a small reception room in one of the upper storeys' of a massive stone building which has become the citadel of this man from Moscow, who, despite protestations to the contrary by Mr Eugen Chen, the Cantonese Foreign Minister, and even by hilmself, has become virtual dictator of Southern China.

He wore a white Russian blouse, grey flannel trousers with baggy knees, and brown sandals, and carried a thin riding crop, w’hich he slapped nervously against his thighs or twirled in his lingers as he stalked over to the window to gaze down at the offices oppo site of the Cantonese Ministry o! Foreign Affairs. Sometimes he knell on one of the small chairs in the room with his elbows over the back, facing me, as he wished particularly to impress me with one or another of his arguments.

M. Borodin is not an altogether un pleasant personality. When the' door opened a mild-mannered man of medium height, with a bronze complexion, aquiline nose, the high cheek bones of the Slav, and a long moustache as black as his hair, flung aside a copy of Russia’s official organ, the Isvestia, and rose from his chair. H< smiled as he rang for his Chinese servant to bring some Chinese jasmine flower tea.

He addressed me in a low voice with an almost perfect command of English, save for a peculiar habit of speech which causes him to hesitate with “Ay” or “Eh” between sentences as he searches cautiously for the next word.

For nearly two hours lie dwelt on the many problems of the Nationalist Government here, He denounced Gen eral Chiang Kai-shek, the ex-Cantonesr commander-in-chief, as a renegade and a rebel who would, he said, before tin lapse of many months, go the way of all traitors to just and triumphant causes.

“The Hankow Government,” he declared, “will not attempt to attack him militarily, for the task of its advancing armies is now to concentrate on Peking I share the belief of Mr Chen and other members of the Nationalist Government that we shall have no difficulty in reaching the northern capital within the next three months. “This feudalist Government of the north—the Mukden outfit, I call it—is like the head of the Medusa,” he thundered, raising his voice for the first time, “for when you cast your eyes on it, with its record of iniquitous vice and corruption, you are quickly turned to stone. It is dead, and we must very soon bury it, because the summer is coming and uninte.vred corpses are unpleasant things to encounter in hot weather.”

M. Borodin spoke also of the muchheralded second Note of the Powers, though personally, he said, he had not given it much thought. He had heard rumors of an ultimatum, of a blockade of Hankow, even of a bombardment of military points along the, Yangtze. “These threats,” he continued, “leave us unperturbed. A blockade of Hankow can have no effect on us whatever. It would be designed to starve us out, hut it must fail, for we have our rice from Hunan, salt from Szechuan, and peanut oil, tea, cotton, and tobacco in abundance all round ns. In fact we have everything the human body craves except Paris perfume and Irish lace.

“For that reason,” lie added, refer ring to the Concentration of 35 foreign .varships off Hankow, “we must laugs at the presence of this internationa junkyard in the river and regard d with the same respect we do that for >st of foreign bayonets in Shangha which will rot with red rust before it will make the slightest impression or. the great movement of which this Government are leaders. M. Borodin .referred to his own position. “You have heard, of course,” he said, “that I have fled to India, to South China, to 11 us si a ; that I have taken refuge in hospital, that I have been dismissed by the National authorities?'’

He hurled these questions at me, one after another, his black eyes not fixed on me, but on the great wall map ol Asia, under which his grey sombrero lay. “But,” lie added slowly, “I am still here, eh? —and, as far as 1 can see. here for some time to come. That depends entirely on the Government. “I came, in the first instance, nor from Russia, as the world believes, but at the invitation of Dr Sun Yet-sen. We met in Paris, and I took a great liking to the old man. 1 came to look on him as a Utopian if there was one in the world, and I began to work with him.

“Then, alter 1923, I was asked lo join the party here in China as adviser. I agreed immediately.” “You had no difficulty in persuading Russia to permit you to come,” I ask ed, “and of course you are in the pay of Moscow?”

“1 do not receive a penny from Moscow,” he exclaimed impatiently. “Russia and China are on the friendliest terms. Russia, has done China no harm, and her assistance is welcomed l but I am paid by the Nationalist Government.

“J have no position other than that of adviser. I give advice. _ If they like it they act on it; if they do not, they ignore it. Sometimes Igo to speak to the people when they invite me. Otherwise I remain in my house and this room where you find me to-day.” “Do you believe then,” I asked, “that this so-called Nationalist Government could succeed just as well without' the impetus of your personal sup port and advice? Do you not beliefe that if it is entirely genuine the Nationalist movement might proceed Just as well without you? Why, if it is so strong, do you, a Russian and Communist, feel it necessary to come to an alien country and devote your energies to its support ?” For a moment. M. Borodin stammered in liis indignation at the persistence of my questioning —but only for a moment.

“Could not Byron die in Greece fighting for ilie independence of Greece, eli?” he demanded, hammering, the table with his crop. The conversation turned to the • expected Note from the Powgys and the present attitude of foreign Governments to China. M. Borodin, ignoring entirely my question about the crimes against civilisation committed in the name of the Nationalist Government at Nanking, made the remarkable proposal that the Powers should all assist in the stabilisation of the Government at Hankow. “If the Powers believe that they have a new hope in the Nanking outfit,” ho declared, “they are doomed to another bitter disappointment, Chiang Kai-shek must go. He is setting up a Government at Nanking today under false pretences.

“He is proceeding with the-establish-ment of a so-called Nationalist Government with the aid of three reactionary generals and three notorious Anarchists, two of whom, having accomplish-

Ed their mischief in Nanking, have now fled. These forces are actually keeping him a prisoner, and making him do what they wish. He is, in short, the victim of a nice trick, for instead of fighting him when they might have done so, they joined him and drove him just where they washed.