Aug. 13.
In July 1926, General Chiang Kal-shek, primus inter pares, headed one of seven route armies on the historic march from Canton northward to exorcise militarism from the troubled government of China, After many vicissitudes and readjustment of afliations, the authority of a mew Central Government, with General Chiang Kai-shek asthe outstanding figure, was installed at Nanking under the right-wing of the Kuomintang. Peiping and _Shanghat were saved from Communist Gominance. General Chiang Kal-Hhek entered Peiping on July 3, 1028, The Nationalist flag flew everywhere south of the Great Wall and. General. Chang Hsueh-liang three days later, signalized at Pel~ ping the sympathies of his govern~ ment with the armies under General Chiang Kai-shek. This unity was purely ephemeral. Before long, Tebellion was active in Kwangsi and, in the North, General Chiang Kal-shakhad to grapple with a situa tion which eventually resulted in civil war between the armies of Nanking and those of General Yen Wol-shan and General Feng Yuhsiang, Again, in Peiping, the Manchurian forees put the seal on Nanking's success and later, the "Young Marshal" reaffirmed his loyally to the Kuomintang. The National People's Convention May 1931 produced " dissension which culminated in the open secession of Canton, There followed the catastrophe in Manchuria and the events, which arising out of the "Mukden Incident," drew world attention once more to China's diMculties, Unity still Ingged. General Chiang Kai-shek, firmly entrenched in his position as the chief military adviser of the Government, rapidly came to the fore asthe main inspiration of its policy. Except for two brief periods of voluntary withdrawal—from August 1927 to January 1928 and from December 1931 to January 1032—he has been virtual ly the prime minister of China as well as the Generalissimo. Col-Teagues have been associated with him but it has been to him that they have looked for leadership and decisions. Recent events have suddenly cut the gordian knot of dissension between Nanking and Canton, Kwangsi alone is recalcitrant, The former regime in Kwangtung has disappeared. General Chiang Kai-shek has thus eon able to return to the City whence his Odyssey of 1026 started.
Dramatic emphasis must inevitably mark the occasion, yet General Chiang Kai-shek is probably too shrewd an observer of political and military movements to allow himself the luxury of over-confidence. The sudden defiance of the South under cover of a pseudo-patriotic desire to Munch war on Japan, collapsed in amazing fashion. General Chiang Kal-shek and his colleagues, met that threat with appropriate military dispositions and, no doubt, political arrangements which, however costly in themselves," were calculated to save money in the Jong run and avert bloodshed, spite of their knowledge of the desperate financial straits of Kwangtung, they must have been surprised at the celerity with which the trump cards fell into their hands. Barely a month ago, the idea of General Chiang Kal-shek being able, with Madame Chiang Kai-shek, to arrive in Can-{on by air, just as, two years ago, he made personal visits to the West, North-West and North of China, would have been dismissed as impracticable. To-day It seems to be an ordinary matter of routine, although General Chiang Kai-shek is not likely to interpret it too cagerly in that sense. He is acutely aware that the political and military ascendancy recently asserted by Nanking in the South is not free from anxieties and doubts. Apart from the open contumacy of Kwangsi, the heads of which provine have so far declined to accept ithe provision made for their future association with the Central Government, the changes in Kwangtung's administration have brought their inevitable perplexities and disappointments. The old regime is not mourned. Reliable reports of astronomical figures which indicate the drain of the provincial resources to the personal enrichment of former Kwangtung officials, }who maintained banking accounts in Hongkong, graphically betokened fa gross mishandling of public funds {to the public disadvantage. For all that, Kwangtung has set consider~ able store by the Central Government's declaration of its intention to preserve effective provincial autonomy in. the reorganized province, In other words, it has been understood that the appointment of Central Government officials will be effected with full regard to the prior claims of local talent. Moreover it has been implicitly agreed that, in the main, Kwangtung's own military forces will be solely charged with the duty of defending Kwangtung.
The Kwangsi threat to the /Kwangtung coast and the declared intention of General Li Tsung-jen and General Pai Chung-hsi to maintain their provincial authority against the Central Government by. force of arms have necessarily com~ pelled General Chiang Kai-shek to modify the original plans. How far' this emergency has arisen from a1 Imperfect appreciation of the strength of the Kwangsi leaders' personal position, it is not possible for outsiders to estimate. As this Journal has been at pains to point out, an influential section of opinion, thoroughly loyal to Naning and fully seized of the im= portance of preserving the control of the Central Government, would welcome some compromise to! ensure the association of the Kwangsi leaders with the re~ organized relationships between' Nanking and the South. Whether, by some unkind whim of fate, both parties have been forced—against, their will or by faulty judgment—into positions from which they cai not recede, the next few weeks will determine. General Chiang Ka shek hay the military resources. to justify the intention of bringing Kwangsi to heel by force. He has, it is understood, sent six Central Government divisions into Kwangtung. Military. suecess_can_ be: purchased too dearly if it is Ukely' to endanger the new-found political reunion between Kwanglung and Nanking. On one fundamental issue the Central Government has the unswerving support of most [thoughtful people: its essential responsibility for foreign affairs and, consequently, the proemment need for placing all China's military forces on a national basis to the abandonment of the bad, old system of regional warlordism. Acceptance of that doctrine need not imply the rejection of the Kwangsi leaders' claims to special consideration of their achievements in developing their province. Nor should it be turned to disappoint Kwangtung's desire for the recognition of local claims in carrying out the much-needed administrative and Anancial reforms in Canton, General Chiang, Kai-shek has displayed such a per~ lceptive grasp of political realities fand is known to be so anxious that the forthcoming People's National [Congress shall be enabled to place the new Constitution en a truly national basis, that his recognition Jof the need for avoiding extreme faction can hardly be doubted. If} Jo compromise can be effected, he has the driving force and the per~ sonal prestige to sweep away. obstacles which might dismay. [smaller-minded men. It is for~ tunate that he is now on the spot Jat Canton where his presence may dissipate local apprehensions and give him a better opportunity of applying his vision and statesman-[ship to the immediate solution of Kwangtung's—hesitations_ and Kwangsi's belligerence. He hai had what is described as a "royal reception. It should encourage him to show a royal disregard of petty notions of prestige and to give full scope to a well tested policy of tolerance for the firm consolidation of the Central Government's new opportunity in controlling a unified China.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.