The New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAU, JANUARY 15, 1923. FACTION IN CHINA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18298, 15 January 1923, Page 6

The New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAU, JANUARY 15, 1923. FACTION IN CHINA.

[ '■ , i ~ 1 1-— >, Current events ; in China point; to a ) prolonging of ■;■ faction struggles. These-■ have. been China's bane ever since the overthrow of the; Manchu monarchy in 1911. That revolution hacl its ■ origin in Southern' China, and ' thence came : subsequent revolts against the Republic then established; : Two ; years after the Republic was founded the South was in open rebellion; ; in a few moniihs the revolt was suppressed. Another two years passed ; the President sought to make himself Emperor; and again the South sprang to arms, combining with some Northern provinces, and forced him to abandon his designs and to accept a successor in the presidential chair. The ; settlement was brief. An independent Government, claiming to be ithe only genuine representative of the Constitutional Republican movement, was set up in Canton a t the end of 1917. Intermittent fighting went on through 1918. It was indecisive. In February of the following year a peace conference was held in Shangahai, but it lasted for months with talk that, led to nothing. The military factions in both North and South continued to vex the country, the central Govern-! ment in Peking being too weak to. assert itself and enforce peace. At length, in 1921, a tripartite China emerged from the chaos.. The central area of the Yangtse began to be defined politically as separate from the : North, although it still paid some i respect :; to Peking. : That North was nominally controlled by the Peking Government, which was recognised by the Powers as the Government of China ; it was largely under the thumb, ever, of a high official of Manchuria. ; In the South a rival President exercised a rebellious.; influence from Canton. : a The inevitable result has been to make China pitiably weak, a condition ■- 3 that t has rendered it extremely vulnerable to dominance by Japan. ; : . ■ ■ i '■• - 3 The.;happenings of last year saw a change in . this . L three-cornered struggle. At the opening of' the year the North, with the Peking Government, was under ■■■ the : :control .-■: of the; Manchurian Inspector-General, Chang Tso-lin. v. In the central Yangtse; region Wu Pei-fu ■ was the dominating personality, • having ,risen - there to a position which equalled that held by ..Chang-'' in the North. Sun Yat-sen was President of the rebellious area acknowledging Canton. -.-i/■ Chang dismissed :-.-.; the Peking Premier, replacing him with another,; like himself, strongly proJapanese. Almost the first act of the new Premier was the pardoning of, the ; leaders. ; of -■-- a '-.-: pro-Japanese Club who, had been in sanctuary in Peking under V: the protection of the Japanese Legation there. .-:■: This" was regarded by Wu Pei-fu, of the Yangtse region, who was of all the Chinese, leaders most prominently opposed to Japan, as a direct challenge. , He set; his forces moving. Chang ■ gathered against him all the reactionary elements of the North. %i this Sun of Canton, who previously had :: been violently opposed to Chang in the North,, agreed to help him. by' sending an expedition against %Wu. The threatened AVar„in spite of efforts .-at- mediation, iii which the Peking President- Hsu, I was reported to have been active, broke ; out last April near Peking.' Wu was. successful,' entered; the capital in triumph. His " victory was completed by the happenings in the South; ■•'- There Sun Yat-sen and his powerful general, Chen Chiung--wing, quarrelled,, and Chen chose to range himself alongside Wii. An inducement to do this was furnished by; the "latter's proposals that 'the whole nation should' agree . to the restoration of the Provisional ConstitJiriacin; of the : first« year, of /the Jtepublic. In spite of protests by the Canton President and his Parliament,'the proposal had • acceptance in. the South; Sun as driven out -of Canton. The abolition of the Southefn Parliament ;.: soon followed —•under the .Central Government of . the ? North it., seemed likely that China would > again -become a unit. The hope proved elusive, however.. Yat-sen, continued in revolt. The old feuds of the South revived. .'.. From recent news' it may be concluded that, although there is ;' now a \ strong party in the South wishful to-join; up with the North;: Sun : Yat-sen : is implacably opposed. The news of the revolt of .Chen'' Chiung ming's forces adds i to the confusion, and China's peace seems at the moment as far. off as ever. . This persistent .weakness of China is the great tragedy of the East. The .Washington Conference gave considerable attention to China's troubles, and reached some promising conclusions. Territorial, in- | tegrity was affirmed; Port Arthur i and Wei-hai-wei were- toy be returned; the "open door" commerce was to be kept;. Japan's dispute over Shantung was amicably settled ; an international commission was to revise the Chinese customs; China was to be left in sole control of her : own postal system, and the , consular jurisdiction was to be overhauled. ; To some it seemed that . China had received her Magna Charta. It was not so. The roots of China's troubles lie deeperin the disparate element of her people. Foreign help can achieve something, but not'all. , Foreign advice .is indispensable ; it has; been proffered often, and seldom -refused': but it has , been turned to little profit ]ih- the continual scramble *■ for places and i power. ' ■'- Perhaps the reported in- !: sistence of'the 1 0 American Government on delay; in remitting i-' the Urdted States',share of; the Boxer indemnity until ..China has '." made a * ' , ; : '■;■;■;; : ; :■■:';'.' :' - " " 1 ■■'"•'■■'•■■ "'■■■■, "5-": '' : '-■■■■•■■•".'.'';■■■•■ ....... ■■■ : .- ; • .■.:■-

satisfactory -recovery from her chronic .financial disorder may- have some effect on China's,leaders. That indemnity has been /the deadweight on China's finance. It ..-'imposed ';.' as a penalty by the Powers for an international crime not lightly, for-, given nor easily forgotten. : It ; fell on an,: Empire, but the succeeding : Republic^inherited &i indebtedness. America alone , among the Allie° promised to remit her share; .this reported, delay in remission will; strengthijin foreign pressure on ■! China tdi set her house: in order. A J country ji of boundless coal .and I mineral'/-'jresourc'es and surface- productivity! as well as enormous! labour potentialities,' China should not continue to':be a pauper i dependent 'on the loans of a shrewd Oriental neighbour and the doles of the Western world. In unity she will find her independence.