YELLOW ARMIES

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 90, 12 October 1929, Page 9

YELLOW ARMIES

SOLDIERS OF NEW CHINA"

THE NATIONAL SPIRIT

(By Lady? Drummond Hay.) (Copyright.) : ::

Visions of vast Yellow' armies 'drawa from.the world's greatest single inexhaustible; racial' reservoir "of more than 400,000,000 people, the spectra of a modern Genghiz Khan or Yellow Napoleon, a new China, with all the trappings of modern ' science, age-old inertia given way to Japaneße-like alertness: and throbbing .with dynamic energy—perhaps a hundred years hence ruling Asia, dominating the- Pacific, overshadowing. Europe. That was the phantasm which rose before me the other day in Nanking, as, returning from a visit.to the former Mei-ling Soong, now Madame Chiang Kai-shek, wife 'of General Chiang. Kai-shek, China's President and most outstanding figure, I saw divisions of China's newnational army march by in the terrible heat. ' „'■..■ With elastic step, good formation, surprisingly well uniformed, officers in. the proper places, I was struck by the astonishing improvement since two years when I was in China last. Whether the morale and inner spirit'has kept pace with the outer appearance I could not, of course, determine. CHINESE NATIONAL ARMY. In another part of the city, I saw a. battalion of Chiang Kai-shek's new German-coached Gendarmerie—military State Police—go by in new uniforms with red touches on their collars, a stylo adopted from the old Austrian-Hungar-ian army. Their smart appearance already reflected traces of the German, organising talent of the late Colonel Max Bauer, who . had been General Chiang Kai-shek's . Chicf 5 Military Advisor but a few months when he died ia May. Dr. Gustav Bitter yon Kreitner, an Austrian police : specialist from Vienna, and ex-Major Hummel of Germany, members of the Bauer Mission, are the advisors in the organisation and tactical training of the Gendarmerie. Foreigners, who have- lived long ia China, especially those in the International Settlement of Shanghai, are disposed to be contemptuous when one mentions the Chinese National' Army. With their personal interests perhaps endangered, uncertain and uneasy about their future status, disappointed at the give way" tendencies of their Governments in the march of events, irritated by. what they charge to be the growing arrogance of the .Chinese, one may weU conclude that their judgment is not always objective. ■ . ; ■

"The Chinese will make good'soldiers in time/ declared Baron yon "Wangenhcini, a member of the German General fctaff during the war, now tactical instructor in the "Model Battalion" created by Colonel Bauer, which is already the pride and special delight of Chiang Kai-shek. It is soon to be a Model Regiment" and then . the "Model Division" of the Army. "Officers and soldiers are attentive, eager to learn and are making steady pro^ gress. A healthy national spirit is being treated, and morale is improving rapidly. The soldiers are satisfied with, surprisingly little. Their wants are a few. Maintenance per head costs less than one pound sterling a month. Bnilt, up on a new basis of regular pay, small as that is, proper training and equipment, assurance that they will be taken, care of, when sick or wounded, I am convinced that the Chinese Army of the future will surprise many Western observers." " r .' . .; • AVIATION ON THE PROGRAMME. On advice of Colonel Bauer, General Chiang Kai-shek has .entered upon aa ambitious military air programme. "The Chinese are' fearless, perhaps somewhat reckless, flyers, but a little slow on mechanical details,' which is , natural in view of the fact that they have so little to do with machinery," Karl Fuchs, the enthusiastic young German aviation advisor, told me. Seven new experts in various branches of aviation, all Germans, are being added to the Mission.

Lieutenant-Colonel Hermann yon. Eriebel, a well-known Bavarian General Staff officer during the war, and Bavaria's military., representative on. the German Erzberger Armistice Commission that went to Marshal Poch at Spa in November, 1918, has been engaged by President Chiang Kai-shek as Chief Military Advisor to succeed the late- Colonel Bauer. -Hurr yon Kriebel is known for his1-organising talent, and impressed one as a man of forceful character and great energy. "We havo been engaged to assist in the modernisation of the Chinese National Army and State Police, and in the organisation of industries. We will give the best that is in us," h said so6n after he arrived in China to his new task. Reorganisation of China's State Railways and /chaotic finances has passedj into the hands of the Anißricans. Rumour was rife in Nanking * -at the^ task of organising, to some extent building a new Chinesce Navy, would be entrusted to British Naval Officers.