June 17.
Trotsky, in the days when he "sat at the Moscow end of the svireless and' blared defiance to a whole world, was never more of Bolshevist in theory than are his Chinese adherents to-day. When uttering Bolshevik principles the advocate requires none of the ordinary refinements of speech: he has certain theories before him which seem to call for exposition in the least equivocal terms, and the more encarnadined the language the better apparently. When we meet mild, cultured gentlemen from Moscow thereafter an overwhelming perplexity sets in, leaving us questioning which may be the substance and which the shadow, Those who have encountered Chinese posing as Bolsheviks must at times have been overcome with a like perplexity, so much so that the. ten-fluency is inevitable to class one lot as mere dilettanti, and to think of the men who write the lurid pamphlets as the authentic article. We may all be very badly mistaken, for the wielder of the pen is often a very poor performer with the sword, while mild-mannered men work themselves up to deeds of valour or crimes which send the editors of Sunday papers into the seventh heaven of ecstasy.
Only the other day the bench of the Mixed Court had some interesting Bolshivik documents before it, and a few sentences from them are worth bearing in mind. One was a handbill, prepared to commemorate the seamen's strike, which was alluded to as one of the "preliminary rumblings of social revolution.'' After various complimentary remarks as well as al-lusians to the strength of Labour when combined, it stated Our methods of dealing with the capitalist government are to goon strike, to refuse to pay tax and rent and to resort to assassination, violence and revolution.... You must remember that an increase of pay is not our only demand and to strike is not our only method. We want to demand the blessings of anarchy and communism.... If we labourers keep on fighting against this kind of government, it is hound to vanish from the face of the earth, Then an anarchic government will follow as a consequence.
Tu the 'Labourers' Magazine'', a journal apparently drawing its inspiration from the same fountain head as the above, appeared an article giving advice to farmers who are contemplating revolt. They are to prevent rice and fuel from reaching the market, and by so doing ''robber-like Tuchuns and wealthy and unscrupulous merchants will starve to death.'' This having been accomplished, ''we labourers will reconstruct the nation on the same basis as Moscow.'' Where the 'Labourers' Magazine'' is published we are unable to say, but the handbill quoted above bears the legend that it is the work of the 'Anarchist and Communist Party in Hongkong', an organization which we incline to suspect is affiliated with others elsewhere in China. Of less importance, however, than the organization itself are the various motives which may be behind all this propaganda, for it must be remembered that no such movement in China goes on its way entrammelled but almost as quickly as it is launched political parasites join its body for their own objects.
Tt has happened before in China, and will doubtless happen again, that the dissatisfaction of the people of province has proved the stepping stone to power of an ambitious minor official. The people aided by the soldiery have overthrown their local tyrant, but so far from any popular form of government succeeding, the old system has been continued. Another man has merely jumped into office, and it lias been on the knees of the gods whether he would prove a better or worse ruler than the one deposed. At the same time the chances of an entire change of policy, the allegiance of the province to a new set of parliamentary or other adventurers, have always had to be taken into the reckoning. This is the important point, meaning as it does that a strong motive exists for the fomentation of unrest and discontent. In the position of China-at any time during these past months a change in allegiance of certain strategically - placed - provinces, directed into the desired channels, would have caused a very definite alteration in the balance of power, and any means to such an end would be welcomed by those striving for the mastery. Bolshevism would be as good as anything else, perhaps better. With such propaganda not only among the populace but the soldiery as well, there would be hope of such an upturn here or there, and having that in view it has undoubtedly been encouraged by people hardly enamoured of its doctrines. Hence our Chinese Bolsheviks, the real blood and iron people, have found tangible support to enable them to carry on their work, while their fellow conspirators, those of the apparently superior type, may well be in the movement for entirely different purposes. But no matter how we look upon the two classes of people, the Bolshevik document which we have quoted points the way to the result, a pouring forth in greater or less degree of the "blessings of anarchy and communism,"'
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.