From Rodney Gilbert, Canton, April 20.
"I went to Kueilin expecting to meet Wu Pei-fu in Hengshan and settle matters with him," said Dr. Sun Yat-sen in an interview with the writer to-day, "but he could not come, so we had to change our plans somewhat."
"To meet Wu Pei-fu?"
1 asked incredulously.
"Yes, in a fight of course," said Dr. Sun_ smiling amiably. "You see we did not have the sort of equipment, artillery and al] that sort of thing to meet him on the plain, so we hoped that if we went to Kueilin he would come to Hengshan, where we could surround him in the mountains and finish him. We thought he would come with 40,000 or 50,000 men when he heard that I was coming and that we should then capture a lot of guns and other supplies. But he would not come to meet us, so we had to vnange our plans, "From Shaokuan, you know, we could advance very quickly and by coming down from Kueilin by water we thought we should have the whole army there in a few days and be able to take Kiangsi by surprise. I did not know that there was any opposition here until I reached Wuchow; then of course I had to come here and_ settle it. Chen Chiung-ming had promised me everything, he had promised me obedience. He may have had some idea of opposing me himself, possibly he did; but it was very largely his subordinates. They were the big military men sitting here in Canton and they thought they were everything. They wanted to fight me. They thought that the first and second divisions would fight me. But those troops are not pri-vote property, they are national property. And the men are not their men. They would not fight me because we all belong to the same fraternity. At first they told that they were preparing to ist the coming of Yunnan and Kueichou troops, then they said they were preparing to fight Hsu Chung-chih, They did not mention me. When I got to Wuchow and feard all this—I was intending to go direct to Shaochow with the army—I felt the army and came here myself. And what did they do? They all ran away of course. They said, 'Why it's Dr. Sun who's coming' and they would not fight i-ventured to remark that Gen-oval Chen had gone to Waichow be-will be willing to come with me now or not. I think he will. There is not much else for him todo. His soldiers will not fight me. You see have come here to Canton without troops. There are virtually no soldiers in Canton. If his officers had been able to oppose me they would have done it here."
"Even if General Chen and his troops were not to join, would you go on with the expedition?" I asked.
"Of course," he replied. We are going on now. The troops are moving through Shaokuan all the time."
I inquired what forces were going and by what routes and what opposition they expected to meet. He informed me that Wang Ta-wei was already leading the vanguard, that Hsu Chung-chih would command the centre with Li Fu-lin under him, that Li Lich-chun would take the right and that it had been the plan to put Chen Chiung-ming in command of the left. Now his plans were slightly changed however, and it might be necessary to divide his force, sending some through Kiangsi and some trough Hunan. In Hunan he expected to meet no opposition whatever. It would be just like marching through Kuangtung, he said. rv. Kiangsi they anticipated opposition at first, possibly in the neighbourhood of Kanchow.
Ocr Sovpiers ano Turis.
"Our soldiers are not so many," Dr. Sun volunteered, ''and they are not so well equipped nor so well drilled; they are not so good-looking as the Northern soldiers, But these things do not mean much China. My soldiers are fighting for a principle. Their's are only fighting for money. Numbers do not count. I would not hesitate to \back one of my men against 10 of theirs—at least 10. Besides they will not fight me. Wu Pei-fu has no more than a few hundred men who will fight for him. He discovered that himself when he was fighting the Hunanese and later the Szechuanese. He had thousands of men but he had to take a few and rush in himself. Against me_ it would be even more difficult. For we all belong to the same society, more than half the northern soldiers belong to it and they will never oppose me."
This was interesting and though the reference to Wu Pei-fu's difficulty in getting his men to fight was not borne out by my personal that is the same as the Kuoming tang. It is a secret society, with secret signs and symbols, something like the Masons in other countries. You have heard of the Triad Society, the White Lily Society, and the Ko Lao Hui? Well, it is something like that. When we give the secret sign the soldiers on the other side will refuse to fight, they will join us."
One always expects something unusual from Dr. Sun but I-had expected nothing like this. What ie this society called?" I asked.
"Tt has many different names in differ cat places," he replied, "but a common organization.
"Do soldiers in all the northern armies belong to it?" I asked further, trying to seem only casually interested. ''Do many of the Fengtien troops belong to it?"
"Not so many of the Fengtien troops, perhaps," he replied. "But very many from all the other armies.""
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.