The Hawera Star. FRIDAY, JULY 3, 1925. CHINA’S CROMWELL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 3 July 1925, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

FRIDAY, JULY 3, 1925. CHINA’S CROMWELL.

Delivered e\ery evening by 5 o’cioek -n Hawera, Manaia Normanby, Okaiawa, F.ltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Alton, Hnrleyvillc, Patea, Waverley, Mokoia, Wbakamara, Ohangai, Mereinere, Fraser Road, an Ararata.

General Feng Yu-hsiang, the Chinese Christian general who now dec-lare<s that his country can win her .salivation only by the .sword, admires Oliver Cromwell over and above any other leader in. the history of western peoples; and there i.s, much of Cromwell in Feng’s own bearing and methods. Flo is> looked upon to-day as one of the strong men of China and, inasmuch as competent -observers believe that the rise of as tew as five strong men would save China trom possible decadence, and .set her on the high road to a new .greatness, the position won by this Christian general is worthy of some attention. Until two years, ago Feng Yu-hsiang was Governor''of Honan and Shengslu Provinces in Central China, and his rule was looked upon as the most beneficent that territory had ever experienced. Two of his first public acts on taking charge were to banish all undesirable characters from the streets and to abolish the sale of intoxicating liquor. Sometimes he carried his theory, of drastic measures for the public good to an extreme. Walking one day through the main street of Ivaiifeng, 1 he capital of Honan Province, he came upon a peddler selling bread at three cents' for a little loaf. The Governor, who wore the uniform of an ordinary soldier, protested that, the price w.is too high, land that the bread onght not to cost more than, one cent. The peddler argued that, (since the. war, everything had risen in price; therefore lie had to make a good profit while there was a chance. Besides, he added, growing more hold, it would he foolish not. to ask a. good price, when the people were willing to pay it. Judgment was instant- and sure. In a moment Feng’s sword flashed and the peddler’s body lay headless in the street. A sign,board erected where ho fell conveyed the warning : “Thus shall be- done to everyone who shall profit himself at the expense- of the public.’’ Probably no better deterrent to profiteering could bo found; but tlie procedure, while not without is parallels in the early Church, was hardly what would have been expected of a twentieth. century Christian in the light cf

■western ideals. It is doubtful if Cromwell’s justice was dispensed quite so summarily. Feng became dictator in Chinia towards the end of last year, replacing his former friend and associate General Wu Pei Fu. They had worked together for so- long that the division excited comment, and criticism of Feng’s action. Wn was left in the lurch, aiul isiiHWed a & overwhelming defeaib at the haiid«s of Chiang Tso-lin. A recent Japanese writer, who understands China perhaps better than any other of his countrymen, claims that the explanation of the divergence was simple. The policy of Wn Pei Fu. he says, was to bring about national unity by force, whereas the policy of Feng was unity through disarmament. Feng’s latest speech, with! its fervent wish for war, is not altogether in keeping with this view, so that Chinese affairs are as cliflicmlib to follow as ever. There is a touch of the Japanese spirit in the woixls with which the general covets the glory of death, and it is more than possible that his welltrained and strictly-disciplined troops, if war came, might cause the world to revise its ideas of the fighting quality of the Chinese .soldier. In the pas® officers and men alike have been ardent disciples of the creed that he who fights and runs away—or buys the foe off —lives to fight another day. Soldiering in China is not ail heroic pursuit ; the ancient customs of the country rate it as one of the meanest employments, and the men offering for it have been of a type to match. General Feng Yu-hisiang, possibly in the belief that it is essential in a Christian nation to have a strong •standing army, has drilled these eastern Ironsides as the Roundhead leader did bis. Around the camps runs a ring of factories furnishing the soldiers with daily work. They are required to setwo there each afternoon, while every forenoon is 'devoted to their military training. In the factories they are taught to make house furnishings, clothes, shoes, .socks, and various other needed articles, and they are fully paid for what they produce. Feng works with his men. This is the leader and these the troops in whose keeping, it may be, the whole future of the Chinese Elm pi re rests.