TURBULENT CHINA

Southland Times, Issue 19896, 15 June 1926, Page 7

TURBULENT CHINA

CONSIDERABLE FIGHTING REPORTED. RED FORCES REINFORCED. Pekin, June 13. In addition to the civil war which is raging near Pekin between the Reds and the anti-Reds, considerable fighting is going on in Hunan. The Cantonese have strongly reinforced the Red General Tang Seng-chi, in Hunan, and consequently the Wu Pei-fuite General Yeh Kai-shin has been forced to retire northwards. Wu Pei-fu has ordered certain Hupeh units nearer the Hunan border to assist Yeh Kai-shin and to protect the Hupeh border. The Canton Reds are also concentrating large forces on the Kiang-si border, with the object of invading that province.— Reuter. HOPEFUL SIGNS. A NEW CHINA. ADDRESS TO ROTARY CLUB. (Special to the Times.) Auckland, June 14. “Through all the chaos in which the nation is plunged, hopeful signs of a new China reveal themselves,” said the Rev. Trevor Gilfillan, a missionary from China now on furlough, in addressing the Rotary Club. “Revolutionary China,” was the title of the address, and Mr Gilfillan classified the great changes through which China was passing under four headings: political, industrial, intellectual and religious. It was a far cry, he said, from the days when the Emperor in his reply to the petition of George 111. for a commercial treaty with China vouchsafed the observation that he was glad to see that the King of England recognised his petition as a vassal of “The Son of Heaven,” ' but that China being a self-contained nation had no use for goods which barbarians might have to exchange. “Therefore, let the King of England tremble and obey.” The mystery of why ancient civilisation was at its prime when the ancestors of those in the room were painting their skins had made practically no progress until its comparatively recent contact with Western ideas, Mr Gilfillan explained, by saying that the Chinese had been taught to look backward rather than forward. The golden age, according to their philosophy, was of the past not of the future and the son dared not imagine that he could have better ideas than those of his father, or worse still, of his grandfather or great-grand-father, “and now China is going through all at once changes that came to the West over a period of hundreds of years,” said the speaker. “Thirty years ago I was told that a public meeting was an unheard of thing, but judging by the number held now it looks as if the Chinese are doing their best to make up for the lost time of 3000 years.” He regarded it as a hopeful sign that the influence that would eventually guide China centred among those who were in close touch with Western ideas. Wars were just theoretical wars, thanks largely to the vastness of the country and unwieldy means of communication. A lot of trouble was due to the fact that the Governors, military and civil, had acted much like feudal barons. The most remarkable feature of the situation was that in spite of the disturbances the trade of the country was not interrupted. Last year, in spite of the Shanghai trouble and other influences, the Customs returns reached their maximum. The trade of the country although flourishing was nothing to what it would be with a stable Government. “The pendulum has been pushed a long way,” said Mr Gilfillan, “but it is now swinging back. The new China is suffering from the faults of youth. It is young and enthusiastic, but it is growing. The present state of the country leaves it to some extent at the mercy of all kinds of agencies, but I notice that Bolshevism has had a setback. I hope it is permanent.”