Nov. 22.
The Manifesto issued by the Central Executive Committee of, the Kuomintang at the conclusion of the Fourth Plenary Session is a document which reads exceedingly well. The principles! which it enunciates are un-acceptionable. If they are cat-ried into effect with reasonable Promptitude and persistence the work of unification will assume a reality beyond doubt: That it presents the events of the recent past in a light which strict attention to accuracy would not entirely endorse should not be accounted to its authors for, evil, Their task it is to louse the enthusiasm of the people and, more especially, of the various local authorities. who will be called upon to assist in the reconstruction, Enthusi very naturally requires the inspiration of the belief that its pastors and masters have guided events to their destined evolution. So the Manifesto is eloquent in its expression of the belief that the revolt of the North was disposed of by the Government relentlessly according to plan. There remains only the problem of reconstriction which has. to be taken in [hand by the National Conyention to be assembled on May 5—a date of special significance in that it is the anniversary of the inauguration of Dr, Sun Yat-sen President of the Republic at anton in 1921. The Convention will also be asked to fix a date for the promulgation of a Permanent Constitution, The optimism breathed by the Manifesto is plain from the details of the programme lai down. It has been generated by the undoubted success of the Government in scattering the forces arrayed against them in the North; it has been stinulated by the dramatic arrival of Marshal Chang Hsueh-liang as a coadjutor with the Government in Nanking. Nor is opt-linism the only feature of the document. The attention paid to the details of reviving auto-nomeus administration in the districts gives birth to schemes which can only be described as ambitious. There is no reason to suggest that they are beyond the power of the Government: to accomplish, provided patience and thoroughness are employed in the endeavour and provided the Government are able to assert over the greater portion of the country a gradual recovery of the power which should be inherent in the central authority. It were idle to pretend, for example, that district autonomy in the sense demanded by a National Government can be put into force in many provinces at this moment. The form of local self-government existing in the valley of the Middle Yangtse or in provinces like Kiangsi and Fukien is hardly appropriate to the scheme propounded from Nanking for it rests in the main on denial of Nanking's authority and a vivid exposition of the beauties of bandit-autocracy. The statement that the "foundation of peace and national unity having this been firmly laid and the military task of suppressing the rebellion having been brought to a final conclusion, all comrades and. compatriots must hereafter direct their energies to the one channu of peaceful economic and culture: "reconstruction" must be etd it conjunction with the previous observation that "as long as the Communist and bandit menace is not removed, Peace and tranquility will not be possible, The Manifesto's optimism is therefore rightly qualified; it cannot be derided as that of men blind to facts. Indeed it expressly notes that the evils to be extirpated have in fact during the past six months been "the main cause of the sufferings of the people."
This sage recognition of realities induces confidence in the strength of the Government's will to carry into effect tha essential features of their programme. No one who has la the smallest degree the good of China at heart can fail to hope that they may succeed. For stability and peace is what China needs more.than the vindication of the dominance of any particular section: It is necessary, however, to point out that in the bandit anehace the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.