Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, FRIDAY, MARCH 26, 1926. CHINA IN TRANSITION.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16993, 26 March 1926, Page 6

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, FRIDAY, MARCH 26, 1926. CHINA IN TRANSITION.

The extthor'linnry conditions! in' Oil in a Jin vo recently been closely in* > Instigated by Sir Poreiynl,Phillips* who, in an interesting article,, has stated | that although the many-sided'problem of China in transition' required long (study, an impartial observer could soon realise that tin; immediate future, offers no prospect, of a settled peace or of a’stable, central authority : arising,■ capable of re-uniting the country. Speculation as to the future, he stated, was worse ’than useless because things were happening in China so quickly and so unexpectedly that “an event which scorned .yesterday ' impossible might be an established' fact to-day;- a, sensation of the first magnitude ,a forgotten. incident bv the end of next, week. “ He tells how generals rise suddenly from oblivion by the easy mad of treachery, and full again’ as swiftly when their money fails. There is, likely to. be lighting of sorts‘farva loiio /time to copied arid- there,are rhany embryo generals ;1o Arpriii - t he./pa th lb power, r It us .veryplainly! asserted r that. love Of; >, Conn try** has li ttly ; or • 110 .plagCj; ; ChinVt- ■ -ton - these neon ,;is du4'so',Thufda.loo't. : :Tlie'geiieral ; w 111 C the- longest fnrisb 'buys Glie v bi'g ; ' •jest army, and so secures a portion 1o repay his outlay. If is thus a time of civil war and organised brigandage, and many of those best, informed think that this unhappy state of affairs may go for months and even years The only apparent alternative seems to be a /centralised Bolshevik regime under Red Russian influence, and therein lies rite real world menace. The picture is drawn of Pekin, a capital in name only, with a mnkedioliovc .President artd a frightened Cabinet, cowering before the shadow of Fengyuhsiting, or 1/uehangiin, or whoever may come along. With a big enough following to hold sway for the time being. Lawless students, worked up by agitators, 'do as they please, and so the game goes on. That any trade or commerce*is conducted at all is amazing to' the foreigner. In addition to iho “paper'’ Government of Pekin there are self-appointed Governments * that do not recognise the ope at Pekin, These include the “governments" of General Wu, General Feng, and General Li Ching'lin, and within and around them are the lesser “governments" of lesser generals, operating independently or cautiously co-oper-ating for the moment with untrusted and suspicious allies. Sir Percival puts it thus: “The country, thus vivsected by mercenaries, may be likened to England if military commanders—some of them ex-bandits and others ex-politicians—established themselves at Exeter, Norwich, Carlisle, and Canterbury, and made, organised raids ori the co'untrtysi ie for the 'collection of money and plate wherewith to feed their men and bribe each other’s corps leaders,' meanwhile blandly ignoring the plaintive and ineffective protest's, issued from Whitehall to all concern-, ed,' The Dictator of Shanghai (the; native quarter, not the Foreign i Settlement) is Marshal Sun Chuah; Fang (one of the 309 “marshals" of China), in whose honor triumphal niches were raised when he entered the city. A year ago he was a brigand in the remote territory of Fukien." There is no indication, however, that the Government Britain recognises will be able to fulfil any 'obligations' that may be entered into. It is probable that the day will come when a strong dictator may arise with a sincere desire to rehabilitate the , country, out meanwhile the. shadow of Russia grows greater, and the Red grip tighter.. For, their own ends leaders of the civil warfare in -many parts have accepted Russian assistance—secretly or openly— and some, like General Feng, may really-believe they are making a tool of the Soviet. But' it ,is a dangerous game, it was not long since that Karakhan, the Soviet leader, said: “Give us a foothold inside the door and we shall sit down without waiting to be offered a chair." In the, general chaos what the Chinese fail most to see is that the 'dictation and ruthlessncss of the-Reds differ only from flip same in the White Russians in being a triile more aggressive. It is not hard to look back to when Count Witte planned to build up a great- Russian Empire ,in the Far East, and primarily to serve his purpose, the Chinese Eastern was built, a railway for which three nations have been intriguing and now finally may serve an excuse for real war.- Air. G. C. Dixon tells the story of the Chinese Eastern as*“one of the groat romances of modern times,’-’ rushed through, as it was, twenty-live years ago, by an army of Cossacks: and a horde -of coolios, and great cities rose like mushrooms at Harbin and Mukden. They were not only made by the railway, but governed by the'railway;and the crafty Red Ambassador having succeeded in destroying the prestige of the railway, Changtsolin recently was forced to give, in return for certain concessions from Russia when hard; pressedo, recognition to Moscow’s claims .for control of the old Czarist Government’s half-share in the Chinese Eastern, for which’ he had long been intriguing. Quickly following this, White •officials were replaced by Gofnmunists. What will follow? No one Clin prophesy; there is yet no; gleam .of light.

•THE MARY IT- LS OF WIRELESS. That. it. is possible, as. was reported in our columns' on Monday last, lor

a. family in Gisborne 'fo sif at. ease in . their own dwelling and to hoar with great, clearness tire full, details .of a church service at Sydney, Meliounie, Brisbane, Dunedin or Wellington, choosing which service ' they pleased according to their, fanp.y, or religions predilections, gives one some idea of ' the progress that, wireless is nlakitigi , The introduction, of broadcasting has boon spoken of as ranking in import- j ance with the introduction of printing ] l>y William Caxtojt in the fifteenth < century, and■ when, ivc read, as we, did. ! qnilo recently,that a. complete, he,vysf! stoty lin'd been transmitted, norOsk’MlU). fj Atlantic by. wireless telephone for 'jinh-. ■. Mention in- the American 1 press it is h easily understandable that the ' event', J can bo sot down as an epoch-making one. The development, of . wireless y transmission of speech' is truly one of - , tho marvels ' of our age. Within a!, year of tlio general introduction of,?; broadcasting in' England oyer half ai> ( million receiving- sets had been in-''-j stalled in the homps of the people) anil > ; probably two millions of the itllihbi;,!] tents'were regularly Receiving file jiiq-i] grammes transmitted daily,". and all i

day long, from' tho various broadcast-; i' big cejitres. The working radius of a broadcast Wireless' transmitter, it; ia, I well known, is.not confined to thc .nai-’ 1 1 row.limits of. a network bf lines, ns' iu ' i ordinary telephony, but Is spread over ■a huge, area, any point of which ft. .. available for reception, arid whilst the’ i authorities at'Home have set. limits to Iho. power of reception of tho! re-; Chiving sets: the* tendency, in New Zealand and Australia has been 'fur the; amateur to reach out-in. the ether and gitiher in programmes' of interest from- .long 'distances.' Thus wo have heard Of concerts from as far distant as Han Francisco, Sydney, Wellington, or Dunedin beitig hoard; occasionally with great clarity, by amateurs at Gis-' borne, and though the , number, of wireless- plants in New Zealand- is comparatively small the body' of enthusiasts is gradually extending arid soon thousands 'of people will be finding delight in'and reaping intellectual profit frorn the concerts and lectures,' say nothing of the spiritual uplift from the churcli services. .The accomplishment, of telephoning prpss messages from Loudon to New York opens ,up a new vista in .journalism, as an Australian contemporary points out. It is going to have a rcvoluticlifting Cij'ect upon the world's great nows-, pnpors. As long ago as October, 1923. Sir Robert, Donald,, then chairman of the council of the Empire Press Union, Remarked) on the ''occasion of a representative deputation to the Imperial Economic Conference; “The cables are entirely- -inadequate to meet the .'ueods- of riie/ 'Emfiire. . ... What,:: is '.wantedtia not, only 'cheaper rates,: but! spebdy:-and .adequatefheryice. . t For: it'h'ekc * things ;'wb",.inust look to' wireless; ’ .Sir Robert Donald is .■justified j ,ip.',the 'evenj;vy ~Th'e, .successful:,trsns-; ' ■iprssion of" a full 'hefts 1 story by'wireless telephony, across the Atlantic is a news story in itself of the greatest importance. There is, and there will remain for many years to come, plenty of work for the cable services; but more and more as the years go on we may expect to find wireless, supplanting the cable ns tfie chief rhodium of communication,* both in regard to newspaper messages and those relating to trade, and commerce. Not long ago Marconi announced that in a Comparatively short time people in Australia would be talking t 6 their friends in England .by means of the wireless telephones It was on May 30. 192-1,/that, with what, he termed “rather experimental arrangements,” intelligible speech was transmitted for the first ■ time from England to Sydney. The experiment succeeded, (he very first time it ’was tried, Mr. E. T. Fisk be-, ijig in charge of the receivers at Sydney. As managing director of'Amalgamated Wireless, Limited, Mr. Fink has been, very closely concerned with Xlnrconi in his experiments since that time, and after his recent visit to England ho is more than ever convinced of the great part, that wireless is going to play in the immediate-future iii the world’s affairs. Besides Mr. Fisk there is in. Australia a select link'd of amateur investigators, and iii N.nv Zealand,' too,' some very able young men have been carrying- out experiments, with signal success. Twoway communication by speech has been cstabli; hod between these countries .and England and America. The Commissioner for * Australia in the United States of America, Sir .Tames 1 Elder, has projected his voice through the. ether from Pittsburg to Sydney 1 and Melbourne, and it is not too much • fo expect that .ore long wo shall bo listening to the Prime Minister speak--1 ing in the British House, of Commons, or the American President oclncriitg a message to Congress. Historic gatherings in the ' Homeland will, be ■ brought closely to us by the vocal and, musical records of the ceremonies.