A CHINESE PATRIOT.

Northern Advocate, 27 January 1922, Page 4

A CHINESE PATRIOT.

A ccording to one >of yesterday's .cablegrams, General Wu Pci Fhi, who is regarded in some quarters as the man who is going to lead China out of he<r domestic ishaos, has succeeded in indiucing the President of the Northern Republic to dismiss his Prime Minister. Tha/t gentleman, Liang Chili Yi, has been given leave of absence, which indicates that his return to office is unlikely. General Wu, wiho is apparently an honest man, has been trying for some little time it-o brimg about a change of control at Pckin, though it is not considered likely that he will himself wish to take up the burden of administration. It is said that ihe is purely a soldier, and a very remarkable one, au.l all that he desires is to see the government of his country in the hands of men who can be trusted. Within the past year or iso General W<u hlas came into prominence. His first great exploit was the defeat, of the Anfu Party, which would have sold ithe /country to Japan. A few months ago the Pekln Government asked him ito protect the province of Hupeh against invasion iby the neighbouring province of Human, and (ho broke the power of the Governor of Hupeh in the .process. With an army of 100,000 men, whom he had trained hiiimself, he has been able to hold in -check the brigands who have been the nominal commanders of the tivo provinces and to (thwart the schemes of the more distamt foes wh:o kye threatened the safety of the Northern Republic. The Southern Republic of Canton, headed by Dr. Sum Yat Sen as President, iclni/ms to be the principal Government of China, and cherishes designs against Pckin; in fact, it was reported some weeks ago Uhatt Dr Sun was going to leaid the Cantonese to Peikin to dispossess the Northerners. That ha® not happened, hult the South is «i constant men cue e to the North, and General Wu cannot foTget the fact. It does not, however, prevent him from pressing forward his schemes for Teform. His country is iin a sorry state, ovc.r-.ridden by, provimciril dictators, who arc siimply bamlmts battening on an ignorant people, Jaw-

less and corrupt. General Wlu 's ideals are national unity and the substitution of civil authority for ,the present amieel He lias set. his heart upon t.hc gathering together of a great national conference at Lushan, in the province of Iviangi, which, tradition says, is a place where everybody can sec himself as he actually is. Wu wants his countrymen to realise the gi-ossness of the evils with which they are surrounded and to sweep them away. He wants to give China constitutional gogovernment in place of corruption and chaos. It is in his favour that the commander of the Southern armies, General Chen Olviiung Ming, its a patriot after his own heart, and an alliance between these two .military men would porhaps usher in a new era. Such an alliance is said to be within the bounds of possibility. But while Wu apparently is able to work liks will with President Chiang at Pekin, Chen may find it, harder to deal with Dr. Sun, whose present dictatorship is strangely at variance with the altruistic patriotism he displayed immediately before find after ithe birth of the Chinese Republic. Together, however, Wu and Chen should be i-troiig enough to gain control. Ornce they had done so the question would be whether their patriotism would prove more honest than that of their (prcdeee&sors has dome.