CHINESE REPUBLIC.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 December 1918, Page 5

CHINESE REPUBLIC.

ipr-c m- ffiP war fe i . UNITED STATES AND GREAT BETTAIN OFffiGR TO MEDIATE. Civil war is raging over half the vast area of China (says the New York limes.) More than half of her 400,000,000 people are involved in ita throes. Xa the central part of the Republic, the scene of military operations, with eight Governmeiit armies in the neld, and as many rebel forces, agriculture is abandoned, trade is. paralysed, and bands of robbers, swelled by deserters from both sides, are terrorising civilians. Hood and famine haw augmented the battle death roll.

In a world afire the Chinese tot » a minor conflagration. A counter-revolu-tion in Russia, although pygmy in comparison, awakens more interest in Eng-lish-speaking countries, because Russia's fate is an immediate factor in the European war; but Pekin and Canton, rival capitals, are ontheothersideof the world, beyond the periphery d tho world cynosure, and have never seemed to bear any vital relation to it. Not even the recent declaration by Frank L. Polk, Acting-Secretary of State, «hai America wished to help China bo to equip herself as to too of greater aid to her allies, aroused mueh interest. Not until the United States and Great Britain offered their services as mediators did the spotlight of international interest shift momentarily from the 6t. Mihiel salient to Pekin. Civil warfare httß torn €hint£ almost continuously since the birth of the Republic seven years ago. The present conflict is the fourth. It commenced over the dissolution of Parliament, and is a. constitutional quarrel. The effort to adjust the long-standing dispute is being made on reports by American and. British agents, who believe there is hope for peace. Sir John Jordan, British Minister to Pekin, has made & Jormal proffer of intervention, but it M unlikely that President Peng will act oa it, as he is to be succeeded on the 12th October by Hsu Shih-chans •wkc-'Wis .elect' ed last September. It was & spark froia tho European, war forge that set China aflame, and it was fanned, by German hands. In June, 1917, Li Yuan-hung, then President, sent to the Parliament a bfll declaring war against the Central Powers. The German Ambassador, von Hintze (the same von Hintze who had been Admiral Diedrich's Flag Lieutenant at Manila Bay when the Admiral told Admiral Dewey how Germany would whip the world; the same who subsequently was German Minister to Mesdco during Huerta's regime and is now German For* eign Minister) was carrying on oa active propaganda among the members of Parliament; and Premier Tuan CM-jioi,. who was also Minister for War, sent some troops along with the President's bill, to arrange themselves about Ore doorways and the compound'«f tlierJcgislatiye buildings. There is reason to believe that ihe Parliament was in sympathy with the Allies, but Tuan chffse a poor way to win expression of that sentiment. The show of military force no angered the Solons that they voted dawn the war measure.

Premier Tuari then persuaded Piresident Li to dissolve the Parliament as a means of reprisal Loud was the protest which arose at this usurpation, of power. The action was declared contrary to the Provisional Constitution under which the Bepublio had its being, and eeeessioift became the order of the day. There ore those who tcssert that Resident Vt was none too whole-heartedly pro-Ally, and apparently Premier Tuan shared that view. It ma.y be that the President merely objected to the Premier's drastic methods, which, as it turned out, were to prove disastrous. The true inwardness of Oriental politics is a matter which the Occidental can but guess, and returning travellers from China had each a different version of what happened there to. the days which followed.

The provinces which eceeded were Kwanktung, Kwangsi, Yunan, Kwoichow, Hunan, and Szechuen. They set up a rival Government in Canton, and Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who had been the first President of the Republic, ibecame their Generalissimo.

Premier Tuan was dismissed by the President and retired to Tientsin, where he organised a party of his own, consisting of the military. Governors and oflicers of the army in the northern provinces. His object was to oust the Presidents and establish a etrong Government to overcome the rebellion in the south, and to accomplish' this he brought about a dramatic cout d'etat. The redoubtable General Chan;* Hsun was invited to enter Peking with a bodyguard on the promise that the dynasty of'the Manchua was about/to be restored

Thereupon was witnessed a fareial resumption of royal reign. The boy Emperor was I'einstated on his throne, and for ten day* guided the ship of State. Then former Premier Tuan, despatched an army into the capital, where they gave battle to the Royalist forces, drove the youthful Emperor into the asylum of the Dutch £<ega&Jo&,. and resurrected the Republic. Tuan's puirpo** wps nccomjflfehed'. President. Li, who had fled to the Legation quarters when the trouble first brewed, declined to emerge therefrom to K-csume his offence, and aO Toon's request the Vice-President, Veng Kupchang, assumed the postTuan Chiyui, accepting agata the portfolio of Premier, was hailed by some aa the saviour of the Republic. Hio two most feared enemies, General Chang tod former President Li, were out of tho way and he was free to earry; On the war against the rebel provinces; but it was his method in bringing all' £TuB to pass tha4> gave rise to the com-: ■jion appellation of his party *a the--Militarists, and increased sympathy in many quarters wtth the Southerners, who w«ra ka.wsra a* the Constitotlanalista, Tuari was awUlmg to ve«mV«ae.i!hef old Parliament, but called for the election of a new one. The fSrathenrersf maintained 4ha4 Parliament «raMf j»fe' be prorogued or dissolved, and that it', was legally in existence until its term expired wider the Tiey

' "*"""" """ ~ "" "" "7 \ Jiamcnt wi/uld be without attttorty- * They drsrgcdy furthar, that the as- ' sumption of the office of President by, <he Vice-President waa illegal, and' to ■ iaese points thfljr sfcuefc with Sceteb <ihstiHacj)i Ti» first aquadron. of the Chlneso Flat declared its independence wwn t&0 southern provisoes, and sailc-d to Cm**'' tnu. Wu Ting*faag, former Antbassa- , 7dor -to the United States, threw ia hhf ;, Ifojtunes with, the .rebel* and oatabttahr/. ted hk residence in Canton, Under tbai \ command of Sun 'Zft.t-Ma the southern : forces were victorious daring the aarito' batfeles, but the tide toned somwhafi' Against them last March, when thej| rlost Yochaw and evacuated Changshiyr. the capital off Hunan. Sinoo &ett •<£*, d tide has fluctuated. ' '<

About 300,000 soldiers'are fightingmri'; 'each sido. i The northern asmy ha* thai•' advantage of a better equipment in<ekt|-, artillery and machine guns ■ r Tong Ghi-yau of Yuhan and Yuen-ting of Kwangsi were the leader* s of the rebel forces ■under Dr. Sun Yat"l ; Sen, whose purpose it was to leav* tMt, purely provincial affairs of the fioatiM' era State under the control of theißT local Governments. Bui when he founqj ] that the Tuchuns (Provincial GovexaniVH' were ignoring his orders' in mißlarjjL matters he undertook energetic meas-j, urea- Accompanied by hie young frifej'; who was educated in America, he«om«V mandeered a gunboat of Canton, oara-.' bombarded i'ie headquarters of -the»mfl4'' itary Governor there. Tho ehells dMK no great harm, but they deeply im-fl < pressed the Tuchuns, so that thereßftetjS the authority of the rebel Government Jy was unquestioned. Dr. Sun took otob| control 1 of the Judiciary and Prison Be* | partments, the -Kwongsam railway, and f the surplus revenues of "-the Salt><3a* .-> belle. i ■

Dr. Sun convened* an> fl ErtraoTdMm'i Parliament" and assembled a Catteetf; but lie found his Ministers unruly andij his military forces disobedient, and jha}„< .retired last May. But iris letter <#'jß-h signatioa called for s continuation ofj 1 the war, and tho fight fcs» been-<,goinjP'j ahead. . ~■? 1 ■She Military Governors <S' Kangstt' and Kangsi remained neutral. It is'*' weakness of the Pekin Government ihaiif, >a large part of the regular army, iij imashiained by the provinces, and is un* ' der the control of tho Tuchnnst end ; those who remained neutral harosael-1 the Government with continual deV ! mands for peace, to which the comm*rj J ■ciaJL guilds and tho Chambers at Comi : merce, at a session to Tientsin, added? their clamour. . .<! Apparently these repeated requests and the resignation of Dr, Sun have. ] brought both sideo to a etato ot minjj > in which they are willing to discujiSr i peace. Hsu Chi-chong, formerly Vi»; President of the Republic, is sail t$ '■ ? have had the sympathy of southemeil! \ *in ldss candidacy, and possibly has ify»; power of effecting a recondKatkm. 'SM \ -first achieved prominence during ttf| last days of the Manchu dynasty, whep <be was one of the chief statesmen in"

negotiating the adjustment of rolatiofl* between China, Japan, and Russia, «n sequent upon the Rnflso-Japancse Wwa After the boy (Emperor, Hsuan Tunffl : had iris brief fling at the teone jam was deposed, Hsu became his guar&iaJM Hsu is regaaded as a sagacious and ara tute Chinese, wad tte Allied diptematij apparentiy hopa Urat under hlto han|i 'Chino's otsHo may t» quieted m thajj iher asanies soaji Iw tunwd tow«fl,i tSifeia. ' ,'