Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Over 50 Years.] WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 1932. TURMOIL IN CHINA.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 27 January 1932, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Over 50 Years.] WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 1932. TURMOIL IN CHINA.

In Manchuria, the Chinese forces have discreetly retired from further conflict, and Japan, having asserted her authority there in the only manner consistent with her prestige, may now consent more willingly to let the League of Nations discuss the situation. The radical error, it seems to us, in League debate upon the ChinoJapanese disputes, has been to regard the Government, or what passes for Government, at Nanking, as authoritative and established. That the Nanking Administration has, in its representations to the League, uttered against Japan’s actions protests seconded by all warring factions in China may be true; but that does not warrant confidence in a conclusion that that Administration would put into force, or even accept, any decision that the League might declare. Nothing that has happened since the Cantonese faction first attempted to secure supremacy over the central and northern provinces has afforded any indication that a respected Government over all China exists. Indeed, the unending turmoil demonstrates the contrary. An illuminating exposition of the anarchy that has prevailed is given in the November issue of the “English Review,” by Mr J. 0. P. Bland, perhaps the, foremost foreign commentator of to-day on Chinese affairs. “The manifest determination of the Cantonese,” he writes, “to control the Government and the foreign relations of China is . . .a permanent factor of unrest and strife, the importance of which has so far not been recognised.” The revolt of the Kuang (the two southernmost) provinces against the rule of Nanking is no mere passing phase, “but a sign and portent of things to come in the Far East which must seriously affect world politics in the near future.” Mr Bland draws attention to the “coincidence” last September, hitherto little noticed (he says), of the visit to Toldo by the Cantonese Government’s Foreign Minister, Eugene Chen, and the Japanese Government’s sudden decision to take a strong line for protection of its interests at Mukden. Canton is the seat of all real power in China to-day. It is the ‘ ‘ ancestral home, rallying centre, and chief beneficiary of the wealthy ; (Chinese) communities overseas.” The tide of Chinese emigration which since the middle of last centuiy

has flowed into the East Indies, Siam, Burma and across the Pacific, has been chiefly from the southern provinces, of which Canton is the head, and that tide lias been skilfuly directed by guilds and secret societies. These Chinese communities abroad are, in some places, of such great numbers now that they are ineradicable, and they draw masses of new recruits from the over-popu-lated homeland. Mr Bland stresses particularly the power of the secret societies, and he declares that “the recent proscription of the activities of the Ivuomintang by the British authortiies in Malaya may be regarded as a cloud, no bigger than a man’s hand, which is destined eventually to overshadow all other problems of the Far East,”