IMPRESSIONS OF CHINA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20385, 17 April 1928, Page 5

IMPRESSIONS OF CHINA.

Written for the Olago Daily Times. By Phofkssor J. 81.B 1 . Cos>dmste. Research 'Director, Institute cf Pacific Relations. YI.-THE NORTHERN DICTATORSHIP. The most marked contrast between north and south China at the present time is tho greater sense of security and order under tho northern diclrtorship. In that respect, the two capitals, Nanking and Peking, offer good illustrations. Nanking represents the aspirations and difficulties of the Nationalist movement. Its achievements as yet aie small. Tho city bears the marits of revolution only too plainly. It has few groat official buildings or other marks of a capital. Its streets are narrow ami dirty, without much order or regulation The foreign consulates are still unoccupied after tho incident of March 21, 1927 and foreign residences arc in pathetic disrepair „nd ruin n'om tho mob violence of that time Yet evcrv official ono meets is optimistic perhaps a little chastened oy recent failures; but still confident of tho ultimate success of the Nationalist cause Plans on a big scale, sometimes unpractical but always idealistic, arc in the air Education occupies a notable place in these plans and the veteran scholar Isai-yuai : . pai, who is Minister of Education am Research, has gathered around him a band cf enthusiastic followers. The drift of the intellectuals to Nanking is very murk and iu clear contrast with the hesitant and rather fearful attitudes of similar grou,-» | in AA° rth the' walls of Nankin,.. the poltt cal situation is . not P™~ I fioneval Chiang uai-shek .is back and appa e'lty consolidating his position fu brother-in-law, Mr T.. 8. Soong, whoso suecos, as Finance. Minister of . nc greatest achievements of the Can on, Government three years ago,, seems fairj '£ Iho wav to repeat his success Ho now nas the wealth and trade of Shanghai and the rich provinces of the Yangtse delta to draw upon. But the writ of N linking runs odym"Wo provinces, arid doubtfully „" one of them. P Even at Hankow allegiance is more nominal than real. On the upper readies of the Yangtse civil war and banditry have resulted in the ahnort complete dis ntegration of government. Son, half in ruins after the Soviet coup of December, is hnancially and admtmb tratively independent of Nanking, and bound to the official Nationalist movement only by the lowest of ties. While it is true that the whole region south of the Yangtse is Nationalist, there is little eliective organisation of government, and the task of building up such organisation is extremely difficult. The defection from Chiaug-kai-shek of such leaders as JJr U 0. Wu, Sun Fo (tho eon of Sun-yat-sen), and Hu Han Ming, makes the difficulty even greater. North of the river the war against Chang-tso-lin is at the moment stalemated on all three fronts. Chi.-ng-kai-shcke troops have been moving up tlie railway which leads from Pukow to Tientsin, and are temporarily stopped not far below the important junction of Tsinan, where the ex-German (and later Japanese) line rune in through Shantung from Tsingtao. Further west; Feng-you-hsing occupies a position on the line running up from Hankow to Peking, and the "model governor "of Shansi menaces Peking from a position ■ stillv further west and north. The northern armies hold the interior lines of communication, and have a quick retreat back to Chang-tso-lin's real stronghold, Mukden, the rich capital of Manchuria. Neither aide, is really unified. On his Shantung left flank Chang-tso-ling is dependent mainly on the two leaders, Sun chuan fang and Chang chung chang, the latter a brigand of unspeakable morals and shameless inefficiency. Despite much superior equipment and armament, the northern armies have the almost fatal handicap that they have no cause for which to fight, but depend upon force, and ultimately upon selfish interest. A measure of real unity among their opponents might demoralise them ver' quickly. Tho spearhead of their armies, ivhito Rusians companies, seem to bo disbanding for lack of funds and their whole position is apparently unstable. The air is thick with numerous offensives both from north and from south. and equally with rumours, tho truth of which no one can judge, of negotiations and bargaining betwsen sections of both parties. In Peking one hears and roads stories of rapprocnements bctweiin Nanking and the 'younger Mukden group designed to betray Fen-yii-shiang, but those are vigorously denied, unci so are tho stories of a separate peace between Peking and Governor Yen, ol Shansi. Those who are in a position to know most alxmt this subterranean manoeuvring keep an open mind and remain prepared for any conceivable development. No mere passing observer can hope to prophesy. Nor, indeed, is it important to do so. The fundamental things that aro happening in. China do not depend upon the issues of political bargaining so much as upon tho economic and social consequences of this long-continued and costly civil war. As ono rides by train in from Tsingtt, through Tsinan to Tientsin and Peking, the evidences of conflict are very clear. Ino railway as far as Tsinan is still under Japanese expert guidance and runs to schedule. Tho deplorable effects of civil war are, however, inescapable, especially round about Tsinan. Many troop trains but no goods trains are to be seen, and almost the only woll-fod and well-clothed groups of people aro the soldiers. Tsinan is on tho odge of tho famine region, where 4.0C0,0C0 people aro in desperate straits, officially ascribed to droughts and locusts, but in reality due, as everyone knows w the cumulative effects of illegal taxation and looting, military destruction and in security. From Shantung the garden t.iovinee of China, ancestral home of Con fucius and embodiment of Chinese culture, the farmers are leaving in hundreds of thousands, forsaking tho graves of their forefathers, abandoning their farms and tiekking to the new land of opportunity, Manchuria. The very railway line gives evidence of steady deterioration. Tho famous Blue Express, built fairly recently by an American firm, but never paid for, is m a deplorably filthy and broken-down condi. tion. A train. official told ub there bad been no repairs done since 1920. Iho train came in on time, but the cngmo was taken away for temporary repairs and came Iviclc s ; t hours later with steam escaping from a lar<re hole rusted through its boiler casing. Eventually it reached 1 eking rather more than 12 hours late. Poking itself is safe and well-governed. Its «t.reots aro clean Mid busy. Ine various "legation quarters and imposing governmental vamens give an air of importance and efficiency that is almost wholly lacking in Nanking. Nowhere in C.nins,can one get the authontio feeling of history as in this strango city which holds four walled cities one within tho other. It is true that grass grows in thp spacious courts of, the Forbidden City, and that tho vellow-roofed Imperial aud'ehec halls have boon looted of most cf their treasures by bandits who have temporarily been warlords No one can now see tho ancier.t blue-roofed Temple of Heaven or tho marblo terraces of the Altar of Heaven n.d.ioinin<* it. Changtso-lin's soldiers forbid entrance" to these Precincts where generat'ons of Emperors offered worship at the New Year on behn.'f of the whole people. P'nan'--tso.lin himself, acting as president, offered such worship on Chinese New Year's Day; but normally the temple grounds seem to bo reserved for an ammunition dump and place of execution On the eve of his worship. Ch?.ng-tso-lio had e-'ght of his senior officers executed there T'iev 'deserved it. having been found .guilty of placing forsred documents, purporting to come from F.ong-yu-hsiang, in the houses of wealthy merchant's from whom they subsequently extorted blackmail. About {became time a distinguished teacher, a Ph.D. of Columbia, was dragged through the streets on a cart and executed as a Communist sympathiser, his crime apparently being that he was connected with the Nationalist movement. Within the President's palace, guarded by companies of soldiers, Chang-tso-hn. the ex-bandit, lives in tho utmost seclusion. He is reputed to be unable to sign ■lis name and to be addicted to miih•ongg and opium; but one does not dis-r-uss Mich dangerous subjects or indeed any politics in Peking. Whatever -goeH on in the palace, it is a daily sight to --iee bands of unfortunf to gamblers, roped together, being led off for condign punishment. On the surface Peking is orderly, law-abiding, and efficient, but this is due to a rutb'ess dirtnlorshin—arid a Chinese dictator*')!" at that. For the passing •-tranrrer it is on the who'e a sat'sfnetorv •*nte of aft stirs and it may b~ that "tieh •I Government, based imon the expanding ••osmirens of virgin lr>nds"i)"w'v broken in fo rn'Hvntion. mnv be consolidated into •opr-tli'mr "Put -:tieh a development would be the <W,th- j \-noll of Hie hopes of Nationalist China I ■iid. wh'l-i the intoMeefiKil resources of 'he country iir" levins mnhil'Vod so stronHv •round (he effort to bni'bl a now order, 'ho odd=' nr<- likely to b" on th"ir side. T'*e inpff!" ; c!''-v rind n'".ih'i>«i of Nanking oiter all holds more of future promise