Jan. 3
Mr, Eugene Chen's task of proving the Washington surtaxes to be unwanted by the Chinese people or the various Governments of China, seems to be @ particularly difficult one, as he is the author of the precedent for their imposition. Simultane-Jously with the publication of his protest against the authorization Jof the surtaxes, as suggested by ithe British Memorandum, is announced the levying of the surtax in Hankow by the Nationalist Government. Throughout} the entire discussion of the jquestion"and previous to it, by many months, the Nationalist Government levied the surtax in Canton. They are collecting the twa.and a half per cent. now in Canton and Hankow. How can Mr. Chen protest against the re-Jgularizing of a precedent which he set? How can he complain against the adoption of a pro-1 which originated with him? His protests and objections place ithe Nationalist Government the paradoxical position of ob-Jjecting to what they want and fof protesting against what they themselves do.
Or, are we to infer that the Nationalist Government favour} the imposition of the Washington surtaxes in their t land oppose it in the te under the control of their opponents? Such a stand would be to ask the Powers to intervene on their behalf, for it would be agreeing to direct financial rt of their cause. The Nationalist Government surely would not ask for intervention, either by arms or money, in their favour; yet, it is difficult to understand what other meaning on may place upon Mr. Chen's! actions and Notes. No military jor political group levied the! Washington surtaxes until it was done by Canton. At that time, it was suggested that the Canton Government were levying the ssu tax to liquidate the boycott. Mr. Chen was the Minister of For eign Affairs when the Canton Government imposed this tax, His was the signature to the Notes with regard to it.
Similarly, he is the responsible Minister of Foreign Affairs at this moment when the surtax is being levied and collected Hankow. He surely must realize that any steps he may take to raise revenue for his Govern ment will be adopted by his opponents, if they prove practic-fable. And that is exactly what, happened. Shortly after Canton, began to collect the surtax, Mar shal Chang Chung-chang levied it in Tsingtao. Is it not to be assumed that what may be done in Canton, Hankow and Tsingtao, may not be done in other ports? Mr. Chen surely thought of the possibilities of Marshals Chang Tso-lin and Sun Chuan-fang jecting upon his suggestion and following us. Why then would he have us believe that to collect this money in Canton and Hankow is good for China but to collect it in Shanghai and Tientsin is criminal, would make every Treaty Port' a fresh object of militarist plunder and jan added incentive to the p jpetuation of feudalism and war in Chini Furthermore, Mr. Chen's cipal opposition to the imposition lof the surtaxes arises from the, fact that the north would get more, two-thirds of the whole. (Now that amount has not been xed arbitrarily but is the result! lof the normal economic processes of the nation. The Treaty Ports under the control of the northern. Governments collect more revenue than the Treaty Ports from which the Nationalist Government collects, That is not achieved by any act of foreign "imperialism," nor even because lof the military activities of the northern warlords, It is the result of business going to those places where there is a greater security to property and a greater possibility of a fair opportunity to make a return on the investment. That forty per cent, as Mr. Chen's Note suggests, is collected in Shanghai, is a tribute to the healthy economic situation of this port. There was a time in-China when other ports were greater revenue producers than Shanghai; Canton, for instance, was once the premier port for foreign. trade in China, But that day is passed, Now, Shanghai is not held by: the Nationalist Government but is under the control of the Northern Tuchuns who are being fought by that government, Shanghai is to be made a battlefield, then it can only be because that Nationalist "Government Jattacks those who are in possession of the soil. It will not be because surtaxes are levied here, for they are not, but as part of the Nationalist programme for the conquest of the country by the Kuomintang. Whether a surtax is collected here or not, we are to assume from the military operations now under way, that the war will be brought to this area. How then can it be suggested that the imposition of the surtaxes will turn Shanghai into a battlefield, when surtaxes or not, the Kuominchun forees have already passed the Fukien border on their march to Shanghai?
But from what has happened in Canton and Hankow, we are to assume that as soon as the Nationalist Government reach Shanghai, if their military campaign is' successful, they will impose the Washington surtaxes. For we know that it is their plan to have a uniform system fof taxation throughout their territory and that they have been in Hankow less than a month and have already imposed this duty. Now, are we to under-and Mr. Chen to say that if Marshal Sun Chuan-fang poses the surtax with the con sent of the Powers as suggested in the British Memorandum, he and the Powers are doing something very wrong, but that if the Nationalist Government reaches Shanghai and imposes this same surtax with or without the consent of the Powers, it is doing something altogether right? What makes it right in one instance and wrong in the other? The British Memorandum makes it right in every instance. It suggests that as the Washington Conference promised this increase to China, the increase should go into effect irrespective lof the fact that China is a divided country and that the surtax should be paid to the possess: fof the soil. If to-day Sun Chuan-fang controls 8 hai, he will get the surtax next month, Mr. Chen's Government set control of the place, they can have the money. In a word, there is to be an impartial and unbiassed treatment of this question, To that an-parently, Mr. Chen objects, He would have a biassed and partial arrangement; he would get the Powers to agree to his collecting the money but not to Marshal Sun's collections, If the Powers adopted his proposals, they would soon find themsel the position where the two-thirds of economic China, to use [Chen's figures, would. be prote: ug against their partisans in favour of one-third. Such course is utterly unreasonable.
Tt would appear from all that has happened that the Nationalist Government.took a step without being aware of all its acts and implications, Wh:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.