We must open our eyes to the! "Humbug of Peking." There is no central Government or authority in China at the moment, But as a result largely of its historical position, and also because it is easier to continue the humbug rather than fiaunch into the intricate complica tions of change which facing realities would involve, the foreign Powers continue to recognize as the Government of China whatever! military swashbuckler has his no-mines in the Peking offices, when its writ seldom extends outside those massive and ancient city walls and often has very little control within them.
In' all_ my journeyings through (China there are certain impressions Which remain vividly with me, There is the contrast between the evangelical fervour and simplicity of life at the Kuominchun (National Army) headquarters which I visited at Kal-can, the fine discipline and enthusi-asin, and, on the other hand, the obviously luxurious life of the staff Jof the army of Chang Tso-lin, when Peking.
I visited his son's headquarters in
It is quite clear that Chang Tso-lin and Wu Pei-fa are equally fernies of progress and national unification "in China, I think " of Hankow, the headquarters of Wu Pei-fu, his arsenal belching forth smoke' and fire night and day, and, adjoining, the Hanyang works, the: only iron and steel works in the whole of China, its blast. furnaces jand rolling mills rusting for lack of use, In Canton it is at once clear that} wwe are in a new progressive China, With new roads, new bridges, new parks for the people, order and dis-line, far and away the finest and most wonderful Chinese city in the Far East—admitted oven by its opponents to be the best Government in China-—Canton is the hope of new China.
The Government of Canton, and also that of the provinces around Shanghai, now gathered under the ule of that intriguing unknown quantity, Sun Chuan-fang, are as much entitled to be regarded as the Goernment of China as are Chang and Wu. The "Humbug of Peking" can-Inet go on for ever.
Members of the Canton Govern-iment, putting the interests of the nation first, told me that they certainly do not want to be recognized jas an independent Government. They ido not want to dismember China. Undoubtedly, however, they should have their share of the Customs surplus instead of everything being given by its foreign controllers to Peking.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.