ANARCHY IN CHINA.

Evening Star, Issue 18094, 9 October 1922, Page 7

ANARCHY IN CHINA.

FUTILE AND MALIGNANT STRUGGLE. A GLOOMY OUTLOOK. [By PnncivAr- Landon, in the ‘Daily Telegraph.’] I have just concluded an inland journey from Peking to Canton, which has brought mo into contact wtth almost every aspect of life of Central China—industrial and • agricultural, prosperous and depressed alike. My way took me past the groat half Europeanised centres of the Yangtze Valley and through quite unknown districts', where white men had never teen before; one by one tho aspects of China at war, China under tho daily threat of brigandage, and China eunk in absolute security were revealed; my companion and I wont in chairs across the almost inconceivably rich rice Ikiuk of Hunan—of which the inhabitants claim that in a good year their province alone can feed all China, and in which a 120 per cent, harvest is now being laboriously gathered in. Wo dropped down dead rivers, on which no floating thing moved except onr own junk, and through shut and deserted ■towns, so universal is tho terror of the riverine population of the south. We watched the military effort of both sides in the futile and which at this supreme moment in Chinas history is sowing deeper and deeper seeds of 'discontent and disunion, and at last, in baffled civilisation at Canton, there was spread before us .proof of that helpless stagnation of civil life, of trade, and of all political bone which is staling the .south even more than the north. _ And throughout this visit of inquiry one unhappy fact has become more and mope clear and certain—that by no body of men could tho mass of the people ot China bo as miserably misrepresented as by the men, whether of the old or the now Parliaments, into whoso nerveless and intriguing hands ■ tho interests and well-being of the country have been committed 1 . BRAGGART AND IMPOTENT AUTHORITY. It perhaps wil bo of interest to deal first with the military situation in South China. The expulsion of Dr bun lat Sen from office m Canton took place at, a, time when the impetuous but ill-organ-ised Manchurian expedition had been launched against tho Northern Parliament. Its despatch was timed to synchronise with Chang Tso Lin’s unsuccessful raid into Chihli, but it lacked a leader as qualified as Chang Tso Liu to bring the troops off again from a lost enterprise. An unwieldy rabble of malcontents from Kwangtnng,' Hunan, and Yunnan have for the past wo months been lurching backwards and forwards in tho midst of a wide terror-stricken area. along the frontiers at Kwangtnng,, Hying by pdjaou, without either leadership or plan ol action, almost without munitions, and ouu of hand, intent only—so far as any of them have any dear purpose at all—upon getting >me. Therein lies the- kernel of the present situation in, _ booth China. Dr Sun Yat Sen, who is now exercising a braggart but impotent authority from the decks of his cruiser Yungfeng—for which tho discredited leader is not ashamed to claim the cx-temtorial security of the river off Sameen—depends solely and wholly upon this return of Jus expeditionary force, nob eo much for h return to power as for 'to very existence. On the other hand, Chen Chiung Ming is determined that, as a fighting unit, not a man of Sun Yat Sen’s expedition shah ever reach his homo _ again. Slowly, but with fair steadiness, ho and his Lieutenant Yelichu—some confusion has probably boon caused at homo by the reference to this rising general by Ms Cantonese name Ipkuer—are breaking up the hordes nominally commanded by Hsu Chung Chih. On our way down the North River wo passed through the outposts ot both sides, receiving civility from each, thoufh on nearing Shluchou wo came under heavy firo from both sides, and vveio obliged to strand and abandon our junk —evidence rather cf a characteristic bieakdown of communications between commanders and men on both sides than ot any hostility to foreigners. In fechmehou itself a state of desolation reigned, as was natural perhaps in a city that has suffered pillage twice within the last few montns. SUN YAT SEN’S MENTAL ■ breakdown. Still, as I have said, Chen Chiung Ming is slowly breaking up this Northern expeditionary force. Unfortunately, as no one knows hotter than he, that achievement of his aim will merely disperse upon tho face of the unfortunate country Z0 o OOQ men who aro still nominally grouped under tho banners of Hsu Chung Ohih and has lieutenants Chu Pai Teh, from Yunnan, and Chen Chia Nu ; from Hunan. No means exist for detaining these truculent followers of Sim Yat Sen as prisoners of war _and did means exist the resulting chaos in tho South would merely be intensified. However, the Chinese are not in tho habit of crossing bridges before they come to them. Chen Chiung Mings present intention is to prevent this rabble joining hands with Sun Y r at Sen, and in this ho will bo successful. The situation is not much helped by the mental illhealth of Sun Y r at Sen at this moment, whoso nervous prostration has already required the assistance of two foreign brain specialists, and upon whom tho news of the final dispersal of his expeditionary force will probably have an effect which his colleagues openly anticipate and l dread. But the disappearance of Sun Yat Sen from, tho arena, will avail little. -The- root of tho trouble is that tho,only hope of tho future in South China—and, therefore, in all China—lies in' Chen Chiung Ming. But with a- resolute determination, greater even than that of Wu Pei Pu, who occupies a sinister position in Northern poUlics, he refuses to come forward as toe saviour of tho situation. Here we ai’o confronted by a traditional prejudice, that is on another plane from that of Wcstenr thought. Had this trouble arisen in Europe, two men of tho moment in _ whoso hands power has slowly come to lie and who are in sympathy, not merely os to their aim of reunification, hut aro in the main agreed! a-s to tho form which it should takej would recognise their responsibilities and make common cause loathe re-establishment of law and order in their country. But neither one nor the other will interfere, although it is obvious that without their support the action of no other party or person in China can effect anything. “YEARS OP TURMOIL” TO COME. If the truth must bo told, chaos, helpless, and over deepening, broods over this richest of Eastern’ lands. It is avith poignant regret that after throe months’ study of Chinese affairs, both at fust, hand and with the cordially extended help of everyone hero who is'in a position to form an accurate opinion of tho situation, one leaves the country convinced that there Ho before China' years of turmoil and intcnccine strife. She can only_ bo raised by her own efforts, and she still awaits, and is likely long to n'vait, a saviour from among her own people. Yet there is no time to lose. Foreign and Chinese traders are alike in despair; for them still tho buoyant Customs returns carry no real message of hope. On the waterways of South China—tho only means of com-munication-lifeless industries painfully organised have died out, and l even tho gigantic agricultural wealth of Central China is powerless to render that world service on which tho hopes of foreigners are largely based, Her vast mineral resources remain undeveloped, her railways are stagnant, and 1 for any purpose save that of warfare there are no funds available either an the North or the South. Under tho circumstances it is difficult to tee how the Consortium can recommend further loans; yet without them and without that modicum of foreign’ control, which was never more necessary—or more distasteful to the Chinese—there ia to-day no thinking man in China who sees a ray of hope. This pessimism extends .throughout every foreign centre in the Land. So dark, indeed, ia the outlook that no man is anxious that his son shall succeed him in his work here—and, as we know from our experience of India, there is no gravea’ sign of mistrust than this,.

AN IMPERIAL RESTORATION? In conclusion, it is worth while to draw attention! to a characteristic, which specially affects China-, More serious than anything else is the fact that almost alone among the nations of the world she lacks* the stay of religion in any form. Other races have their standards of hfo and conduct settled by,,-what Is actually their religion, though in some cases a theologian and a sceptic would agree to call it patriotism. It teas not always so, though nero again it was less a conventional mAh than a blind' devotion to the person of tho Emperor that provided the Chinese as a race with their standard of altruism. But they had it behind them, and the tense of intimate personal relation which hound them to their sovereign, and through him to tho supernatural world was also almost tho sole link of that-unity which R now seems hopeless to restore. Whatever Jus faults—and 1 they were great and unpardonable—Chang Tso Lin at least believed that only by the restoration of the imperial power in a greater or less form could the unification of China be achieved and maintained—and ,he may -have been right. The common belief hero is tha ■such a restoration affords the only possible way out of the present trouble; but the expression, of suck a belief as invaluably followed by the assertion teat tho time is not ripe for anything until, by the rise of some leader, or perhaps tmjmvirate of leaders, respect for law and order is again imposed upon China mauri mrbtan. Whether this restoration is _ then accepted or not, it is clear’ that in varying degrees tho future of China depends upon half a dozen of the' younger men—Wu iei Vu, Cheng Chirm, Ming Ting Kara. 0. C. Wu, Wellington Koo, and O. T. Dang. Whatever their past records, their ideals aro not so dissimilar that they couldl not now act in unison; it mimms ta be seen if their public spirit is equal to so great and perhaps so hazardous a_ test. Hut Urey are tho last hope of China.