The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING, Luceo Non Uro. WEDNESDAY, APRIL, 6, 1927. CHEN’S CONFIDENCE

Southland Times, Issue 20147, 6 April 1927, Page 4

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING, Luceo Non Uro. WEDNESDAY, APRIL, 6, 1927. CHEN’S CONFIDENCE

Only a few weeks ago those dear, earnest people who seem to be eager to believe everyone but British officials warmly scouted the reports that the Cantonese were advised and actively assisted by the Russian Bolsheviks, who delight in injuring Britain and the British, declaring that these statements were born of hysteria or of the Government’s desire to prejudice public opinion against Moscow; but now confirmation is frankly supplied by Mr Eugene Chen, the Cantonese political chief, who quite freely refers to the Russian help the southerners command. Mr Chen adds to his statement the cheerful assurance that the Nationalists can use the Russians and dispense with them when they are satisfied that Red help is no longer necessary. To appreciate the insecurity of Mr Chen’s confidence it is necessary to go back over the organisation of what is known as the Canton movement. Sun Yat Sen, the radical, contemplated a democratic republic for China with the control centred in the hands of the educated leaders of the nation; but his efforts were frustrated because he could never command a force large enough or sufficiently equipped to challenge the military lords. Advances to the north of Canton were fruitless because the people would not recognise the Cantonese as anything

more than militarists too weak to dispossess their rivals. Then came the Russians with the Bolshevist, methods. They turned to the ignorant masses, the lowest classes and offered them rewards as attractive as those offered in 1917 to the Russian masses. This was something new in China, where up to the launching of the Canton movement the civil war meant nothing more than a struggle between the tuchuns for mastery without any inducement to the masses other than opportunities to serve in the armies and engage now and again in some profitable looting. And so for the first time the “under-dog” of China has been made to believe that he has been changed from a pawn to a ranking piece and every week sees confirmation of his growing importance. The significance of this departure should not be overlooked. Chiang Kai-shek is the military chief of the Kuominchun (the Nationalist Army), but he is not at the head of the Kuomintang (the Nationalist Party) which has called the lower orders into the fray with promises of proletariat control. China has always boasted of her ability to use any instrument and to cast it aside when she elected to do go, but will it be possible for Mr Chen and his colleagues to hold in check the forces they have let loose ? The Russians have been the inspires of the Chinese masses in this outburst and they may not relinquish control when the political chiefs or the army leaders wish them to. Nor is it certain that the masses, who know that the Russians have won this power for them, will want to throw them overboard at the behest of the milder Chinese leaders. It is on this point that doubts about Mr Chen’s confidence centre. He is dealing with an instrument new to China, he is pressing forward with the Chinese masses, thoroughly impregnated with Communism by the astute Russians, and there is a grave risk that the Cantonese will not be able to control this movement as easily as they think. Already the moderate section in the Kuomintang has seen the danger, but their attempts to put checks on the Communists have failed —the extremists are

powerful in the party, and the extremists owe their power and their popularity with the masses to the Russians who shrewdly are keeping in the limelight so that the masses will recognise them as the real leaders of the proletariat’s revolt. Mr Chen is not so securely in control as he seems to think.