SITUATION IN CHINA

Evening Star, Issue 19585, 17 June 1927, Page 5

SITUATION IN CHINA

TENSION AT HAHKOW FEARS OF A COUP. Breas Association— By Telegraph—Copyright. HONGKONG, June 16. (Received June 17, at 1.30 a.m.) There are grave fears among _ the authorities at Hankow of a Cbiang Kai-shek coup, and vigorous measures are being taken to prevent such a development, including the declaration of martial law and the wholesale executions of men believed to be Chinng Kni-sliek’s soldiers disguised ns civilians. The situation is tense. Genera! Yen Shi-shan. the Tuchun of. Shansi, has definitely gone over to Chiang Kai-shek, and claims to have 120.000 men rcadv to attack Peking. Chiang has asked that all available aeroplanes at Canton be sent immediately to Nanking. - Sydney ‘ Sun ’ CahK _______ THE PERIL TO CHINA •• Ever since the Chinese revolution which displaced the Mancbus the country has been seeking for a stable government. hut so far has found none. The extraordinary confusion of the past few vears, when, like the satraps of the declining Mogul Empire, military adventurers and provincial governors were playing for their own‘hands, has apparently hardened into a conflict between Peking and 'hinlon. but a stable government is as far off as ever. That is tho 'yellow peril ’ of to-day,” writes Mr Stanley Rice, in tho ‘Asiatic Review,’ _ ‘‘Doctrinaire theory, fanned hv Russia, but taking ih origin from tho campaign of Sun Vat-sen, holds sway among large ma-ses of the people too ignorant to appreciate tho subtler consequences, hut ready to accept any doctrines that promise' an amelioration of their lot The Government is weak and unable to direct and control the forces wbica have been let loose, and the danger is lest, with the violent movements so characteristic of mass psychology, the Chinese pc.iplo should cast away n’t their traditions of tho centimes. If tho Chineso abandon not only Christianity, but tho reverence lor ancestors and tho unit of the family upon which their social institutions arc founded, Buddhism ns at present practised will probably _ follow m due course. But no nation has ever yet succeeded in maintaining itself in pmsucritv upon a creed of puro materialism. ’ The abandonment of religion is tho sure sign of eventual disintegration. Such is the yellow peril of today. It lies not in any fear of millions of fiio race sweeping; across Europe, carrying murder with them and leaving desolation behind, not in alarm for '‘the prosperity of trade, whether of Great Britain cr of otnor countries, not even in the dominance of Soviet Russia and all that -t implies, but in the destruction ot all that has hitherto' characterised Chinese civilisation, and the adoption of new and untried theories calculated to upset tho equilibrium of the world. The future lies in the hands of China herself - it is for the world to hold oim to her a helping hand, if she will but accept it, and to guido her Irom tho rocks nnd shoals on to which, she soems to be drifting.”

BRITISH LEGATION AT PEKING. (British Official News.) RUGBY, Juno 16. (Received Juno 17, at 10 a.m.) A question was asked in Parliament whether the matter of withdrawing the British Legation at Peking to the comparativo safety of the coast was being considered bv tho British Govei iiment, Mr G. Lockser-Lampson (Under-Sec-retary for Foreign Affairs) said the Government was giving full and constant consideration to this question, hut there was no present intention of withdrawal.