Feb, 11, 'The manifesto issued yesterday by the Fourth Plenary Session of the Kuomintang, meeting at Nanking, la perhaps the most noteworthy' pronouncement of Policy that the party has yet made. Coming at a time like the present, when the whole world is waiting to seo which way China will swing, it attracts by the moderation of its' tone and contains nothing which need be dubbed unworthy of its authors. Asa matter of practical expediency, the outsider. might question the wisdom of the sirens Jofd upon the expedition against Peking. And here indeed the Kuomintang seem to feel themselves on rather shaky ground as regards their own countrymen, who must, according to the manifesto, be educated in the importance to the party's whole programme of the Northern expedition. Tt is notorious that war is becoming more and more unpopular with non-political Chinese and money harder and harder to get for its prosecution, Hence, perhaps, the insistance on "the accelerate ed progress of the Northern expedition" and the appeal to the memory and ultimate designs of Dr. Sun. Yat-sen. For the rest, although we only have a summary of its main features, it jeertainly looks as if the manifesto might be subscribed to by all: reconstruction and government by law; the rallying of all factions to a common standard and especially the repression of polities in schools; economic development and the re-writing of treaties; above all, a sponge over past quarrels, and never again "the disturbing actions of the Communist Party," the of ip" ed important and necessary' (the manifesto concludes) as a result of the bitter experience of the Party and the demands of the: Revolution, They are to be recognized as the guiding principles upon which we shall base our work." There is a touch of unconscious pathos in that phrase "bitter experience," and for a guide to better things the manifesto marks out a very good path, But while they attract attention, the utterances of the Nanking conference may be overest6émed. It is not only that we have heard the same sort of thing bef That need not affect the sincerity with which the present manifesto was framed, from which point view its moderate tone is all in its favour. The essential question is, How much of the whole Kuomintang was really represented at Nanking? It would be idle to pretend that Wuhan and Canton see eye to eye with che people in Nanking, indeed the division between them might be put more strongly than that. Where also does Marshal Feng Vu-hsiang come in and where Governor Yen of Shansi? We do not doubt that these asso-clates and allies of the Nanking Government were represented at the conference. But. were they represented by dele-ates sent by themselves or by persons coapted for the purposes sion by the Nanking and con: void of any real discussions? We have no wish to "crab" the manifesto. On the contrary, as a new statement of policy at a time when such wi obviously necessitated by the recent expulsion of the Communists, it reads extremely well.
But if it is to. carry proper weight both in China and abroad and to serve asa common standard for the rallying of all factions, there must. be no shadow of suspicion that all factions were not equally represented in its framing.
Even with satisfaction on thi point, something more is needed A party congress of the Kuomintang is supposed to be held every twelve months, at which time certain instructions are sivan to the Central Executive Committee for guidance during the coming year. The last regular congress was held in January, 1926, at which, among other resolutions, was a te in favour of a firm alliance Soviet Russia for the purpose of undermining imperialism. An extraordinary congress was held in the following October and a Programme was drawn which, under "Foreign Poli we find:—
A general regulation to be issued, regarding the investment of foreign tion are permissible.
This and the alliance with Russia are still the official programme of the Kuomintang and, until they are formally disowned and repudiated at another general congress, no' subsequent manifesto invalidates them. To have two charters in existence so discrepant as those of 1926 and the manifesto now issued creates a situation of considerable danger to the Kuomintang, while still the Communist snake is only scotched, and must make the Powers uncertain where
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.