CHINA AT WAR

Southland Times, Issue 19345, 10 September 1924, Page 5

CHINA AT WAR

THREAT TO SHANGHAI DEFENCE FORCES MOBILISED RIVAL ARMIES ON THE MOVE. (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) PEKING, September 8. Owing to the growing menace to Woosung and the northern borders of Shanghai on account of the situation in Liu Ho, the Shanghai volunteers mobilised at 6 o’clock this morning; while between 1100 and 1200 British, American, Japanese, and Italian marines landed in the International Concession at 4 o’clock this morning. A Lu communique states that the Che Kiang second army, comprising 20,000 men, yesterday morning advanced from Chang Hing, 10 miles south-east of Tai-Hu Lake (which is about 50 miles west of Shanghai) in the direction of I Hing, 30 miles to the northward. A report received this morning states that the Che Kiang troops are only 10 miles from I Hing, and it is expected that I Hing will fall to-day or to-morrow. The main objective is believed to be Chang Chow, which is the Kiang Su headquarters. There have been attacks and counterattacks at Liu Ho, where the communique says the position remains practically the same. Some 1500 more reinforcements were sent to Liu Ho from Shanghai to-day. PROTECTING THE FOREIGNERS. SUN YAT SEN IN FINANCIAL STRAITS. PEKIN, September 9. (Received September 10, 2.0 a.m.) Men have been landed from the foreign warships as follows: British 360, Japanese 400, Americans 250, and Italians 100. Martial law has been proclaimed at Nanking and throughout the province. The Consuls are taking precautions to prevent looting by Chinese soldiers. Several hundred trained police have been drafted to Nanking and Tientsin. It is reported from Canton that Dr Sun Yat Sen has been compelled to postpone his proposed military expedition owing to inability to raise the necessary funds to equip his troops to support the Che-kiang forces under General Lu. THE RIVAL CHIEFS. Chang Tso-lin, the super-bandit of China, has ruled Manchuria for some time, after a very' variegated career. As a youth he fought in the Chinese army against Japan; then his roving spirit took to brigandage, and he was a leading member, and eventually second in command, of the most rascally band of hunhutzes that ever disturbed the dreams of the tastais of Manchuria. In the Russo-Japanese War he commanded an irregular force, part of that cloud of mercenary light cavalry which covered the Japanese left wing, and spied out the land for their paymasters. The war over, Chang, who was not then known as Chang Tso-lin, returned to brigandage as chief of staff to the real Chang Tso-lin. To the latter came an invitation to bring his robbers in, enrol them among the bannermen of Peking, and accept a military command. As his leader, with justification based on history, feared a trap, and inclined to refusal, Chang Some-thing-else displaced him, assumed his name and position, and accepted the military governorship of Fengtien, that province of Manchuria which had been among the happiest harrying-grounds in his brigand days.

As an official, the reborn Chang Tso-lin was a great success, for he was in all truth a remarkably able person. Under his rule Feng-tien became almost a model province. He worked in perfect amity with the inscrutable Chao, one of the “four friends” of Yuan Shih Kai, displaying quite remarkable tact in a most difficult situation. With the Japanese on one side and the Russians on the other, he succeeded in avoiding friction with either powerful neighbour. When China seethed with republicanism, and later with dynastic reaction, Manchuria and Feng-tien, in particular, remained calm. Chang and his immediate superior, the Viceroy Chao, pursued an Aristotelian philosophy. When there were two crowds they waited, and they shouted with the larger. Thus successfully they kept the lid tight down until the time came when it was immaterial whether the lid came on cr off. The policy was correct, for as Chao once explained: “If we have trouble within we shall have trouble from without!” He had his eyes on Japan and Russia. When Chao Ehr-sun retired from the Vice-Royalty Chang Tso-lin took his place, and then sinful pride conceived his downfall. When, in 1920, striking from the north, he and Wu Pei-fu (from the south) moved on Peking and cleaned out the pro-Japanese Club, Chang arrogated to himself the title of “High Inspector-General,” whereas Wu only became “Inspector-General.” This bit of swank dissolved the partnership, and in April and May of 1922 Wu soundly thrashed Chang in a series of battles outside Peking, and drove him back to Manchuria. Since then Chang has been coquetting with the Monarchists.

Wu Pei-fu, a subordinate of Tsao Kun, is China’s ablest fighting general, wrote the Shanghai correspondent of Melbourne Age recently. Unhappily, he does not combine political with military genius. Feng Yu-hsiang, another subordinate, is known as the “Christian General,” and is a fanatic. He will not allow even cigarettes to be retailed anywhere in the neighbourhood of his camps. He is qualified only to be a he has not the capacity for leadership, but his force of 30,000 men, stationed at Peking, is as efficient and as well disciplined as any in China. China has more men bearing arms to-day than any nation. 'The number of the military forces is at least over 1,300,000. These troops are not controlled by the Central Government or by Parliament, but own alegiance only to the military governors. The national army has become disintegrated. In any emergency the President cculd not count on the loyal support of a single division. There is no attempt to standardise arms, equipment, or ammunition for the forces. Only the 30,000 would really be capable of offering serious resistance to modern military forces. In addition to the forces of the governors, hordes of armed bandits torment the land and its people; many of these bandits are exsoldiers. The military and the bandits are destroying the nation; they add continually to the political and social chaos.