The Press Wednesday, November 19, 1924. The Chinese Puzzle.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18234, 19 November 1924, Page 8

The Press Wednesday, November 19, 1924. The Chinese Puzzle.

It sounds impossible, but really is a fact, that a correspondent has supplied "Truth" (London) with a a almost lucid account of the Chinese war. Though he is well aware of the audacity of his attempt—he calls it "the tremen"dous ambition of outlining in a few "words what is happening in China"—it can be said for him at the end of a page and a half that he has in truth shed light on the position and not further obscured it. The general situation he finds to be sufficiently covered by the classical couplet about fleas. The little fleas and the lesser fleas, in the shape of minor Tuchuns (military governors) and their hangers-on, are more or less continually on the bite, the "ultimate source of all nourishment "being the 'ad infinitum' millions who "form the masses in China, and whose <'lifc is one long struggle to keep on "the right side of the border-line be"tween existence and slow £eath by "starvation." It is, however, when the Great Pleas become active that the. world begins to take notice, and it is the turmoil of their preparations of which the West is. now aware. To avoid confusion we must go back to 1923, when Chi, Tuchun of the province of Kiangsu, threatened war upon Lu, Tuchun of the neighbouring province of Chekiang. "A chorus of protest arose "from the intelligentsia of the two "provinces, and hopeful persons pointed "to the beginnings of Chinese public "opinion." Chi and Lu exchanged Notes and came to a "good understanding "-—and then two months ago Chi attacked Lu, who has since sought an international hayen; but the disturbance would have attracted no. notice outside China had it not taken place in the vicinity of Shanghai. There is, however, the possibility —not ruled out by the latest cablese—that the Chi-Lu affair may be a .'/curtain-raiser to a drama "of greater consequence." Chi is an adherent of the Chihli party, while his rival Lu is a member of the Anfu Clique, and these are two of the four sets of personalities which count in China at the moment —the other two being the Fcngtien party and the Kuomin Tang party. The last we need not bother about in the meantime; though it will be heard of again, it is led by Sun Yat-Sen, and can at present bo ignored. The Anfu clique which owns Lu is at present in-eclipse, Chi, as we have seen, having liberated his fighting man Wu against it early in September. And as it happens it deserves its fate, since it was the Anfu clique which so shamelessly sold itself, and the Central Government which it then controlled, to Japan five years sgQ. But the elimination of the Anfu clique, otherwise of Lu, left the way open to the Chihli party to pursue its policy of the "uni"ficßtion' 1 of China by force, and it was that prospect which aroused the fourth Great Plea, Chang Tso-lin, satrap of Manchuria. Chang had no objection to the casting out of Lu, but he did object to the overlordahip of Chi, expressing itself in Wu, the triumphant Chihli general. With or without the assistance of the '' Christian General'' Feng, whose troops are the most efficient in a.U China, Wu, who politically is Chi, would have turned from tho eliminating of Lu to the attempted elimination of the Great Flea of Manchuria. So Chang struck first, and struck hard—with a hundred thousand troops, aircraft, Japanese-trained staff officers, and a technical equipment considerably more„ complete than . that controlled "by his rival; and as soon as it was clear that Chang both meant business and could enforce it, the "Christian General" Feng discovered that Wu was a menace to the general well-being. "Secretly, "and quietly, and with dramatic suddenness," the cable said, Feng with- ! drew his army to Peking, drove put the President Tsao Kun, the creature of Wu, who is the creature of Chi, and today is with Chang in the capital, "work"ing out a policy of reunification." That is to say the Great Flea of the Chihli party accounted for the Anfu Flea in September j the Great Flea of tho Fengtlen party, Chang of Manchuria, extinguished the Chihli Flea in October; and now, with tho aid of the Little, and "Christian," Flea Feng, whom ho will be watching carefully for signs of further growth, the Fengtien Flea is consolidating his position in the North, and playing with the idea of inviting the distant, eccentric, temporarily discredited, hut still potentially dangerous Flea of the remote city of Earns, the veteren Sun Yat Sen, to join him in Poking tp assist in defining the blessed word "reconstruction."