Oct, 17, now many months since the Economic and Financial Conferences met and inspired hope. in Chinese und foreigner alike that the financing of the Chinese Government would be placed on sound financial basis,. A budxet of national income and cxpenditure wax to have been planned and' the Nationalist [Government actually appointed a Budget Commission, consisting principally of militarists, for this purpose. It has not. been reported that this Commission actually met or that any results. have been achieved, The reorganized National Government, the' new Organic Law and the Five Power Form of Government, hive made no provision for " budget er for limiting the Power and the voracity of -the militarists, In fact, it would appear as though the' congre tion of militarists. in Nanking places an overwhelming: burden upon the Nanking treasury, since, now that they are all at' peace, they and their armies must all be fed, even though there is no centralized control lof the expenditures for military purposes, There are there among the Chinese, who argue that there is wisdom in bringing all the militarists to Nanking and appointing them to sinecures on the State Council; that by, this process, General" Chiang 'K; shek is able to have them where he can watch them and that he. can divert their minds and ener-[gies from the dangerous play of civil war to the unimportant Javocation of political intrigue. Those who support this view contend that rulers in history achieved unification by similar methods and point to Louis the Emperor Meiji and Kemal Pasha. They suggest that the price ix none too large, for if China can manage a year or two! without civil wars, the country will ipso facto become unified, trade-will be resumed and international complications will be straightened out. During this breathing spell. they believe, the militarists will become effete, General Chiang will be able to centralize his power and a modern Government will be founded which, in the end. willie the.
Government of - the whole'. of. China for a long period.
There is much' in this argu-! ment that sounds. reasonable, but two factors in the situation are almost. always disregarded by Chinese politicians, One is the huge area" of China, which is even larger politically than it is geographically; and the other is the condition and the temper of the Chinese people. The size of China makes unification by political intrigue impossible. 'France, Japan and Turkey: centd achieve unification by bringing' counts and daiscyos and satraps to the capital or by ending Jabroad, but that is not possible: when control is sought-of an entire continent, General Feng Vu-hsiang reports that he hae suppressed the Moslem' uprising in Kansu; yet from 100,000 to 200,000 Chinese were massacred. [there and the worst has' not yet: been told. Nothing at -all known of events in Siokiati Mongolia is a Soviet Republic, Manchuria is out of the picture Jand now, not because of Japan-jose. inspiration, Hunan, Hupeh, Kuangtung and -Kuangsi- maintain financial independence, though their rulers are, theoretically, the: governors in Nar king. ' What has become of Yunnan? Kueichow-is a principality all "on its own." What revenue hax Nanking collected ""in' the Northwestern provinees and what authority thas_a Nanking writ there? We are not arguing. that China is not unified and that therefore foreigners should Jdraw an adverse conclusion to feuide them in their treaty rela tions in China, We do'definitely believe, however that China cans not be unified by the polley of Nanking and that no political system will ever prevail, which does not respect the right of people to govern themselves in the local areas. Thin principle was recognized by the Economic Conference, which proposed a d mareation of national and. pro= [vinefat taxation and the applica tion of the Budget System to both.
Then one furni (o the toupet lof the people. No matter what {foreigners may have thought of the revolutionary movement, the fact remains, that "it aroused high hopes amongst the Chinese masses. But little. has. been Jachieved to realize these hope The people are in despair. Thi youth of the country particular: ly are turning to Leftist movements in desperation, becatiyg ingless'personal intrigue and'ti [failure to get to work, And. that brings us Buck to the Bud: leet. If the people knew what the Government was, spending: fand how the money. was being spent, they would be able to judge for themselves.whetter the Government were' making Jany progress at all. But the appearances are that the, muls titude are: still being asked: to feed the mouths of counties soldiers as they have been asked to do for fifteen years; and they: tank, "Por how -tueh longer la government to be only for the soldior#?" On all sides, one hears this constant denunciation of the apparently unending exe penditure of money on soldiers and such talk does not make a government popular. If there were a-budget, a publicly declar-fed budget, then one could tell how much was. being spent on soldiers and how much on ré- construction, To-day, nobody knows, but everyone surmises.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.