CHANG CHUNG-CHANG

Evening Star, Issue 19772, 24 January 1928, Page 11

CHANG CHUNG-CHANG

A CHINESE WAR IBRD If Jesse James and Deadwood Dfck had started in and fought their way “ with ever-increasing numbers _ot followers until they came to Washington and Albany and had succeeded in taking the places held by I resident Coolidge and Governor Smith, we would have an American parallel to what has happened in China with the rise to power of Chang Iso-hn and Chang Chung-chang. _ The observation conies from Frederick Moore, China correspondent of the New York ‘Times. The first Chang everybody knows about as. ex-bandit war-lord of Manchuua, and now chief executive of North China. The other Chang is being talked about because as Chang Tso-lin’s subordinate he is Tupan, or Governor of Shantung. His armies have been beaten by the Southerners, on occasion, and have rallied and pushed them back again. But this isn’t a chapter_ of military history. Mr Moore is telling us about Chang Chung-chang, because he is personally the most striking figure he has met during his present sojourn in China. “He looked like a big Chinese boy who had had a good night’s sleep, a good breakfast, a bath and a shave. Even his head was shaved; only his upper lip had hair on it, though that had been as closely trimmed as a British subaltern’s. He was not in uniform, but wore a long, soft, simple blue silk gown— the ordinary dress of a Chinese gentleman; and he carried the usual 'dainty fan in one of his enormous hands. “ His sis feet of height were within two inches of mine, but his massive size, made up of great hones and strong muscles, made me feel small and weak physically. Ho is the finest specimen of the Chinese peasant I have ever seen. “That in his youth he was a brigand scepis well authenticated. He is now forty-six or forty-seven. That was appointed Governor of Tupan of Shantung Province by the small, thin man who rules at Peking is commonly known. That he is almost illiterate is said to be a matter about which lie himself jests. “ Among the things he does not. know are said to be the following: The number of Generals loyal to him; the number of soldiers in his armies (he knows how many he pays for); tlm number of his wives, other than Russian ; how much money or how many children he has.”

Air Moore had heard so much of this stalwart ex-bandit and Governor that he stopped off at Tsinanfn to interview him and also to see the leaders of the White Russians, whom Chang employs as aviators, gunners, and cavalry bodyguards. Scattered among the Chinese soldiers crowding the city were occasional Russians, fair-haired, generally, and red-boarded, sometimes, and always conspicuous. Chang Chung-chang is the only Northern lender who employs Russians as fighting men; he knows them, and he can depend on them. As we read •

“Nowhere have Chang’s Chinese soldiers stood firmly and given battle against the advancing Foutherners. His 20D() Rushans, recruited from among the refugees who have fled into China, from fear of the Bolsheviki, have almost alone defended Shantung. Having worked in Vladivostok as a day laborer, it is said Chang speaks_ some Russian. This is the secret of his employing ‘White Rusisans.’ Anyway Mr Moore forced his way through the eoolie-crowdcd streets, passed through the gateways and courtyards of the Tupan’s palace, all guarded by armed soldiers,- and then left the motor-car to enter Chang’s rcccptionhall. On the walls, it seems, “were a few painted scrolls, a portrait of the Marshall himself in full uniform, with long-hanging moustaches, and also a portrait of a Lama priest.” The marshall did not keep his visitor waiting a moment—- “ Obviously a man of action and of outdoors, philosophical without knowing tho meaning of the word, moving easily, almost indifferently, hardly conscious of his greatness or his weakness, using liis fan, regarding me with as much curiosity as 1 regarded him, looking at me. closely as I spoke, permitting me to watch him ns lie told his foreign commissioner what tn say to me. “Marshall Chang declared his hopes of success and his intention to conduct the affairs of the Province as best lie could in the interest of-the people. “ Ho also spoke of American sympathy,declaring that so much of it as was with the South was misplaced.”