UNREST IN CHINA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20302, 9 July 1929, Page 11

UNREST IN CHINA.

CHAPTER OF TROUBLES.

WAR BANDITS AND FAMINE.

INFLUENCE OF MILITARISM.

[from our own correspondent. 1 SHANGHAI. May 27. When the Nationalists gained control of Peking last June it was decided to change the name of the capital to Peiping (Northern Peace, Pei—Northern, and Ping— Pcaco). It was thought, at the time, by foreign observers of Chinese politics that the action of the Nationalist Government was somewhat premature. Nearly a year has passed and China is still looking for peace and nnity. China to-day is convulsed by civil warfare, cursed by tho bandit scourge and threatened with ono of the worst famines this unfortunate count,ry has ever experienced. At least 90 per cent, of China's troubles can be attributed to militarism. China s soldiers, when unemployed, become bandits and prey upon tho countryside. Finally, China's recurring famines are indirectly caused by the military incubus. The Chinese farmers, in numerous cases, are conscripted into the army and no grain is sown for the harvest. When a country district is occupied by ono of China's armies, the soldiers devastate the fields and ruin the crops. Last but not least. China is a country of huge rivers, which in numerous cases, are uncontrolled. In times of flood, they overflow their banks and ruin countless acres of arable land. China is badly in need of a huge system of conservancy. If tho money at present wasted in supporting her colossal armies was spent on conservancy works the "famine demon" would not be so terrible a figure to thousands of Chinese. Most of tho provinces in China have suffered more or less from the evil effects of the recent civil war. There has been serious fighting between two rival generals in the province of Shantung. Nanking and Hankow have been fighting, while Kwangse and Kwantung have resorted to arms to settle their differences, and now the Christian general, Marshal Feng Yuhsiang has declared war on Nanking. The writer asked a Chinese friend wfiat the fighting was all about. The latter summed tho situation up in two words, viz., "belong political." At Nanking the present regime is too much of a family party and outsiders cannot get a share of the spoils. The strong man of the Nanking clique is not General Chiang Kai-shek, but T. V. Soong, Minister of Finance. The Chinese speak of the present Government as the "Soong Dynasty." It would perhaps be better to call it the "Soong Family." Mrs. Sun Yat-sen is a sister of Minister Soong, Chiang Kai-shek is now married to another sister —he divorced his former wife—while H. H. Kung, Minister of Industry, Commerce and Labour, married a third sister. To complete the picture, Sun Koo, Minister of Railways, is a son of the first wife of Dr. Sun Yat-sen.