ping, Dee. 30.
Boxing Day a party of foreign correspondents were taken the Zapancee military spokesman on a visit to the new Chinese Military Academy, that the Japanese started at Chingho, a small town about half a dozen miles north of Peiping. Pi to the China Incident the school buildings were military barracks, which had played quite a role in the history of the civil wars, having been occupied in turn by the troops of Tuan Chih-and the Anfu Party, notorious for its pro-Japanese leanings, and thereafter by those of Feng Vu-hsiang Chang ''so-lin, Shih Vu-sen and others.
The wheel has now turned a full circle, and the barracks are a training college for officers of the new army north China, under Japanese an spices.
This new army is so far 15,000 strong, but is being rapidly expanded, It has garrisons at Pei kuan just north of Peiping, Tungchow, Kaiping near the Tongshan mines, Tsinan, Paoting and Chengting on the Peiping-Hankow Reilway.
The "Provisional Government of the Chinese Republic" has present no Ministry of War and the Rew army is" therefore under the uptie Safety Department of the Provisional Government." This fact was quoted as clear proof that this Chinese army was being raised solely for the purpose of maintaining peace and order in the northern provinees, and not with any intention of using fight. the Chungking Government, That, however, would appear to be rather a nice distinction, a kind of sophistry, Whether it will work out quite like that in practice is an= other question altogether. retired Into private life in 1924, The Japanese director is Col. Nakamine; and there are altogether twelve Jap-nese instructors attached to the staff of whom ten are military and two civilian, No political teaching is given at the college. According to what was said, the endows are allowed to think what they like. In applying for entrance to the college, alt that the candidates have to sign' is a statement to the effect that they will obey the orders of the "Provisional Government."
The party, needless to say, was not permitted {0 talk to cadets privately.
1,000 Cadets in Training.
The Chingho Military Academy, which was opened last year, is the only one of its kind in north China, It has some thousand odd cadds, of whom about two-thirds are said to come from the Peiping and Tientsin Gistriels, and. the remainder from other provinces of the north. Can= Gidates apply for a scholarship in the faeademy in answer to public adver~ fisement, No pressure or suasion of any' Kind, it is said, are used by the authorities, In order to All up the. school, 'The age limit for entrance from eighteen to 25, but in actual fact about four-fifths' of them are Below 20, They must be guaranteed by two respectable persons, are supposed to have a middle-school educa-Yien, and have to pass an ensy entrance examination. Of 1400. candidates for scholarship this year 1,060 passed Into the college, We saw the cadets at their drill and in one of their classes—it was Tesson in Japanese. They appeared to be a healthy, well-built set youths, "But, judging from what one Saw of them, one would very much doubt. whether many of them had been through a middle-school educa tion, The majority did not took as it'they came from the literary classes of the towns. Rather, they had the appearance of boys from better-off peasant families.
The training is conducted on the same lines as those of the military colleges in Japan, but the course at the Chinzho academy would appear to be a strangely short one: only one year, including a month's visit to Japan. In this time they are sup-poted to obtain a grounding in such 8 varied set of subjects ax: strategy, tactics, military law, fortification, toportraphy and the Japanese lange quite" specially the Japanese Tantuage, Not to mention drill, rife shooting, and gymnastics." One imagines that it can scarcely provide them with a very thorough military education.
was admitted by the Japanese director of the school that the period mutch too short 9 one, but was excused on the st rounds of the great shortage of officers in the new army, and the need for turning them out fag rapidly as possible. In fact, in order to Increase the supply, former foMfcers of the Chinese army are also. taken in and are given a special training: course of only ten months. When this is completed, these latter are at once made company commanders, whereas the ordinary cadets, when they pass out, are only given the Jowest rank, ihat of platoon commander.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.