BRITAIN AND CHINA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20023, 14 February 1927, Page 9

BRITAIN AND CHINA

FOREIGN SECRETARY’S SPEECH WELL RECEIVED AT PEKING. RUSSIAN INFLUENCE WANING. HOPES OF AN AGREEMENT. (Bnh Aseoclation—By Telegraph—Copyright.) LONDON, February 11. (Received February 12, at 5.5 p.m.) The Peking correspondent of the Daily Telegraph states that Sir Austen Chamberlain’s speech was favourable received there, but the British Legation has no news of an agreement between Mr O’Malley and Mr. Chen. The opinion in Peking is that if Mr Chen signs it will bo because Russian influence is unable to control the military and civil parties represented respectively by the Southern commander and Mr Chen. Rather than lose control of either party the Russians may desist from the attempt to influence the Cantonese, and an agreement may then be reached. —A. and N.Z. Cable. THE COMMONS DEBATE. LABOUR DISUNION REVEALED-RUSSO-CHINESE RELATIONS EXAMINED. LONDON, February 12. (Received February 12, at 5.5 p.m.) The correspondent of The Times, Mr A. M. Pooley, states: —“The debate on China emphasised that disunion is rampant amongst the Labourites. This was most noticeable at the ‘united Labour’ demonstration at the Albert Hall, where the derisive spectacle was witnessed of the chairman, Mr Hicks, denouncing the new war, while Mr Ramsay MacDonald protested that there was no war, and affirmed his belief /in the genuine peacefulness of the Government’s intentions, but doubted the wisdom of its actions. Mr Lansbury and Maxton, who supported him, discerned behind the defence of Shanghai an offensive against the friends of Moscow. Despite Mr Lloyd George’s jibe regarding the ‘see Reds’ China is rapidly developing into a Russian question. “Whether Britain will continue to harbour a Russian trade agency at Chesham House, which is described as a nest of anti-British propagandists, remains to be seen. Undoubtedly the Cabinet is divided, but it is thought that there is a majority for expulsion. However, no steps are likely to be taken at present, because Britain’s trade with Russia amounts to several millions a year, while large orders for machinery are actually in hand, and further orders are in course of negotiation. Expulsion is therefore a considerable question for the Conservatives. On this subject the views of the Liberals and Labour coincide, because the policy of expulsion is championed by those members of the Cabinet who are most obnoxious to the Opposition. It is only necessary for Mr. Churchill or Sir W. Joynson-Hicks to propose anything for the Liberals vehemently to oppose it, while Labour invariably believes that England is always wrong. The mentality of Labour is evidenced by its selection of a Chinese as the Labour candidate for Holborn. The real points to be considered are, however, whether Russia really is behind China, or is being used by China. There is no evidence available that the ‘heathen Chinee’ is any less ‘heathen’ and wily than in the past. At least it is just as probable that the Chinese arc using “Rnski” as that “Ruski” is using the Chinese. Furthermore, of what benefit is it to Russia, which has abandoned Communism at home to Communise China? Is it not more likely that Moscow’s interests in China are a reversion to the Czarist foreign policy which led to the RussoJapanese war? Chinese nationalism antedates Russian Bolshevism by many years, and Dr Sun Yat-sen the world had known long before it knew Lenin. Mr Chen is his disciple and just as Dr Sun, when the Republic was established, discarded the Japanese, who had generously aided him, so it is likely that Mr Chen will discard M. Borodin and the Soviet propaganda." —The Times. DEFENCE OP SHANGHAI. TROOPS ARRIVE FROM INDIA. I PEKING, February 12. (Received Feb. 13, at 5.5 p.m.) Transports, with two battalions of Durham and Gloucestershire Infantry from India, have arrived for the defence of Shanghai. There arc now 23 foreign warships, three British battalions, and 1000 United States marines at Shanghai. —A. and N.Z. Cable. NORTH AND SOUTH CHINA. THE WEDGE OF COMMUNISM. . LONDON, February 11. Interviewed by a Japanese agency, General Yang Yu-ting, Marshal Chang Tso-lin’s chief of staff, said: “It does without saying that General Wu Pei-fu is on our side, but in view of the threatening situation in Chekiang the Fengticn troops will advance on Honan in order to restrain the activities of the Southern forces.” Referring to Marshal Chiang Kai-shek and the American proposal for the neutralisation of Shanghai, Yang Yu-ting remarked that if Chang Kai-shek would thoroughly suppress Communism in China it would not bo impossible to bring about a compromise between the Northern and the Southern armies. Regarding the American proposal relating to Shanghai, he said that they wore unable to approve of it.—A. and N.Z. Cable. VICTORY FOR CANTONESE. AN UNCONFIRMED REPORT. SHANGHAI. February 12. (Received Feb. 12, at 5.5 p.m.) An unconfirmed report states that General Sun Chnan-feng has been heavily defeated by the Cantonese, and that General Beiboasan has already betrayed rhe Northerners and joined the Southerners. —Sydney Sun Cable. THE NATIONALIST GOVERNMENT. ' ASSERTION OF AUTHORITY. SHANGHAI, February 12. (Received Feb. 13, at 5.5 p.m.) Mr Chen has notified the Consulates that the Political Bureau has ordered that no more eases on behalf of foreign plaintiffs will be heard in the Mixeu Court. Such cases must lie tried before a Chinese city magistrate without a Consular official as assessor. The Nationalist Ministry of Communications has sent an order to M. Picard d’Estclan, co-Dircctor-Gcnernl of Posts at Peking, to the effect that in all territories under the Nationalist Government postal commissioners in all districts shall be appointed by the Nationalist Ministry of Communications. No commissionr-rs appointed from Poking will be allowed to assume or continue office after February 11. —A. and N.Z. Cable.

SZECHUAN PROVINCE EVACUATION OP FOREIGNERS. SHANGHAI, February 12, The first group of foreigners who have evacuated the Szechuan Province, mostly missionaries, arrived in a packed river steamer. The party included 78 Canadians, 44 Englishmen and Australians, and 27 Americans. The refugee colony now exceeds 500.—A. and N.Z. Cable. SIR FRANCIS AGLEN. HIS DISMISSAL WITHDRAWN. PEKING, February 11. Sir Francis Aglen handed over the charge of the Customs and Loan Service to Mr Edwardcs to-day. It is understood that Sir Francis Aglen, who intends to return to England, remains gazetted, and will ho treated as Inspector-General of Customs for a year.—A. and N.Z. Cable. CAPITALISTS BLAMED. ARMED EORCE DEPRECATED MR H. E. HOLLAND’S ADDRESS. (Peb United Press Association.) WESTPORT, February 12. On Saturday evening Mr. H. E. Holland, M.P. (Leader of the Opposition), delivered a public address at the Town' Hall, Westport, on “The Position in China.” Mr Holland said there were two great movements in China, one representing the strivings of the people towards nationhood and the other movement of workers for higher economic standards. He dealt historically with the events which led up to and characterised the opium wars, and terminated with the treaties of Nanking and Tientsin, compelling China to open her ports to the opium traffic. This, he sDd, constituted one of the blackest chapters in British history, and furnished a solid reason why, next to Japan, Great Britain was more disliked by the Chinese than any other nation. The Taiping rebellion faintly expressed the dawning idea of nationalism and the formation of that idea was accelerated by the extraordianry scram ole of the Western capitalists for trading concessions and territorial acquisitions in China in the 1897-1898 period. Out of that scramble came the Boxer rising, with its outpouring of hatred for the foreigner, and its £64,000,000 indemnity, but they had to remember that the Boxer element was something different from the ’men of Kuomintang. The former were a comparatively low type, while the latter represented the intellectuality of both the bourgeoisie and the working class. In the treaties that were written between 1842 and the late ’nineties they would find the basis of many of China’s present-day troubles. By these treaties the control of the customs was handed over to foreigners and extra territorial rights were conferred. The patrolling of China’s inland waters by British and other gunboats was wholly an illegal act. There was no treaty license whatever for it, and out of that illegality came the Wanhsien and similar incidents amounting to acts of war against a friendly nation and demonstrating that far .too much power was exercised by irresponsible naval officers. The Shanghai shooting, and the economic blockade by Canton, and Canton’s boycott of British goods, were the direct outcome of efforts on the part of the Chinese workers to improve their industrial conditions. The British officials unfortunately assumed an attitude of hostility to the workers. The British Government should give official recognition to the Canton Government. It was clear that it was the only Government that was representative of the Chinese people, and it was exceedingly false, and equally foolish, to refer constantly to it as Communist or Red. Kuomintang was in no sense Communist. It was essentially a national party with a programme which, in some respects, resembled that of the Labour Party. The British Government’s recent offer to China would bo welcomed, because it demonstrated a willingness to negotiate, but inasmuch as it offered China no real control of her own affairs it would hardly be regarded as more than a basis for discussion. He strongly deprecated concentration of British armed forces in China, which involved a transgression of the Covenant of the League of Nations and breach of a treaty. Britain should follow Russia’s sensible example and meet China on a footing of complete international equality. We should hand back concessions, and relinquish every right of extra territoriality, and along with it every measure of internal interference, such as control of customs, etc. If this were done every suggestion of danger to the lives of British subjects in China would disappear —if it ever existed. The Labour movement would use whatever influence it might possess to ensure that whatever rearrangements were made would be by a process of reason, and not by the arbitrament of the sword. The rights of exploitation held by the British industrial capitalists and financial magnates in China were most certainly not worth the sacrifice of one British soldier’s life, and if they should succeed in involving Britain in war on their behalf he would never be a party to New Zealand taking part in it. The Labour movement stood solidly in line with the Labour Parties of Great Britain and every other dominion in declaring against armed intervention.