Many Weeks Ago By A Comronoexr sscormy 1x Sunes!
Nobody who has been in Sian during the last year will have been surprised at the recent happenings there. It was long the common gossip in the tea-houses and oer: Public resorts of that lly, that the North-Eastern Army was out to set pin the province of Shensi an idependent dominion similar to the tone it had previously held—with such feeble and disastrous resulls—in Manchuria up to 1991. What is surprising is that the Generalissimo, in Spite of all. the warnings he must Surely have received, should have ventured to put himself into the power of Ge treacherous _clements, holding the province of Shensi. It doubt, a tribute to his personal courage, though scarcely to the sagacity of his political advisers, The North-Eastern Army has been thoroughly hated by the whole population of Shensi ever since it, fame to that province, on account of Its -bad discipline, the arrogant airs it assumed, and" the way it maltreated the inhabitants. It be+ hhaved just as i it was in a con quered country. It was" sent to Shensi for the express purpose of suppressing the Communists in the northern part of the province. Yet} the mere mention of bandit suppress sion evoked hearty laughter from the cynical citizens of Sian, For} not only did the army never even' try to begin operations against the Communists, but it~ was an open' secret that' some kind of unwritten truce agreement existed between Chang Hsueh-liang, the Bandit Suppression Commissioner, and the Communists whom he was supposed to suppressing. Of loyalty to the Central Government one never heard '8 word in those circles. On the contrary, when last May the trouble farce with Kwangtung and Kwangst, tone heard many expressions of Velled approval and joyful anticipat tion, though when the -writer gave fen ("ope wows "ey" ere sally agreed to "oth. perfunctory platitudes of egret that such ste Could" with toke place in an united China.
Tucir Glorious Deeds The writer remembers dining one evening In the spacious dialngeroom the, fine modern hotel of the China" traver "Bureau, when" at's tone tae sloso-by banquet was being given by the higher olors of the Northeastern Army to. celebrate the bletnday of one of their number. T'was pretty obvious that the. wine had' been flowing freely, sod many these military gentlemen had taken more of it than was good for them. They foot to Unie feet and, ach in itn, made flowery speeches extolling thelt chief, the "Young Marshal (Goto, ras not present), fadechip of the North-astern, Army. Fee'glorious deeds (sic, and each bikers courage and. virtues, and rank' repeatedly to. former "times But not a single word was said 0 Central Government or is eommander-Tnvchiefy who, to judge by those speeches. might never have" existed.
Certain newspapers have described the recent vast improvements that have been carried out In. Sian as proof of the ambitious designs of Chang Hsueh-liang. This pure nonsense. The people of Sian have not even that to thank him for. improvements are entirely the work of the Central Government carried out under the direction of its civil governor, Shao Li-tse, nothing whatever to do with Chang. The only money he has spent Sian has been on extending the old. palace—the one the "Empress~ Dowager resided in during her exile in 1900, which he took over his headquarters and where hundreds of clerks and officers are' quartered.
The only reason one can think of why- the Young Marshal should have continued to receive so much. stiantion from hie own eotintremen despite his unimpressive record ix that the Japanese with their usual fong-headedness have always made a dead set against him, Nor is it clear why they should have done so, seeing that he can never have soused them a moment' "uneasiness it bby the laws of contrariness he thus became a kind of feeble national hero. although he had never done anything for China.
Had. the Japanese ignored him, as from their Stanpoint, "he deserved, Chang Hsueh-liang would to-day be living as an, obscure private citizen in Daires: or some Japanese Concession.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.