Unfortunately, all this moonshine imbibed from the half-baked foreign graduates of Western univer-ities, The definition of a Republic, or a Democratic-Republic, or even 'a Revolutionary-Democratie-Republic, in this great province is imply "accommodation."—This rent province, with its sixty million People and one million soldiers, enjoying what might be termed a campaign against Imperialism, The cities are placarded. with the words "Down with this and down with that," and the whole affair is one gigantic failure, because the movement has no reality in it. The in-Gictments against Tmperiatism are all alien and therefore invisible and consequently difficult to knock down. +Mhis knocking down has become the Accommodation watchword or war-ery of the province. When there is no Imperialism to be knocked down, well, some other thing must be mocked down. Down with Confucianism; down with woman's three states of dependence; down with the four we nly virtues; down with official door the mystic sign "Republic." To the man in the street, to the Chinese merchant, to ths young scholar, this word' conveys one idea and one only, namely Aumocracy" or "Imperialism." He lives in a stretch of country governed autocratically by the big warlord "Hsiang Ba-lao," His home, his business, his fields, once his own are no longer 0, Once he enjoyed a measure of safety, liberty, and security; he no longer does so.
The Reaction It is not difficult to realize what the reaction of such a man is to the present movement. How can peace come between the North and the South when his own provincial is prepared to scrape the flesh off his bones? Szechuan has never taken the Republic seriously, and this for any reasons, Firstly the province never suffered under Tmperialism, Under the former regime the province enjoyed peace and quiet ness; the people were prosperous and industrious; roadways and waterways were all safe for travel. Today, even the big warlord is not fe outside his own garden wall, Szechuan has no reason to resent Imperialism, because it never suffered from the so-called oppression of monarchical rule Secondly, the Republican form of government is a process of administration of which this great province knows very little. Tt is quite safe to say that there is not a single official in the whole province, civil or military, who holds his position through the people's selection or election. The Republican form of government in this great and wealthy province is merely a ques tion of guns—small guns and big guns. Hsiang Ba-lao's guns number twenty and will fire, on occasions, twenty miles; Beh Ho-si's guns number ten and will fire, in any direction, ten miles. Hsiang is therefore the Republican can: date for the wealthy, and influential district of Lacbahsiang. He takes offlee—in fact, installs himself with instills the spirit of Republicanism into everything he touches.
'The mandates from Peking, Nanking, Canton, Hankow, are all daly and priately' incorporated" into ministration Thirdly, the province has never been seriously asked to subscribe to the financial enterprise of the Re-ublic should. Szechuan subscribe to outside provinces? If other provinces in ach other, well 'AN! Szechuan asks in the ut regime is to be left alone; all it demands is that the government name the colour of its fag and this rovinee will ly it.
Fourthly, this province, perhaps more than any other, beats out the remarks of Dr. Hu Shih, delivered in a speech in London, that the Republic revolution came and found China unprepared for it. This is very true indeed. Szechuan as more fit and ready for a great and glorious revolution than Uriah Heep was ft and ready to marry Agnes: Wiekfeld.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.