THE NEW PRESIDENT

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 16, 19 January 1924, Page 7

THE NEW PRESIDENT

PAID FOR HIS ELECTION.

After four months' intrigue Marshal Tsao Kun was eventually elected President of- China, says the Pekin correspondent of "The Manchester Guardian." That is to say, a packed Assembly, thoroughly unrepresentative and bribed to the hilt, deposited votes which ■were declared to be sufficient by the sycophantic scrutineers, and no effective protest was made by the Chinese. It is true that a few Parliamentarians ventured to publish a protest, while a few more managed to evade voting at all, but the majority'of both Houses, and indeed of the people of China in general, remained discreetly silent. From 5000 dollars downwards was the price. of a vote, and those members who wore unwilling to cast'their votes found themselves coerced by various means. Certain members of the Opposition found that it was impossible to reach the capital at all, while those"' hesitating senators who would have avoided the crisis by flight, found themselves greeted on the railway station by a pretended creditor, who haled them to the. Courts, whence they wore not released until assurance was given that they would vote the right ticket. Members' badges were distribtued to persons who had no right to them, but whose votes were duly recorded, and all Parliamentarians who once entered the precincts of the House on the election day found, themselves under military guard and unable to depart until the nomination of Tsao Kun was successfully concluded. All this, however, is past history, and perhaps mainly concerns Chinese themselves. What matters now is the new President's policy. Two of his first steps are significant. To begin with, Governor Tien Chung-yu, of Shantung, in whose territory occurred the Lincheng bandit outrage and whose punishment was demanded by the Diplomatic Body, has been .dismissed from his post—and promoted to another with rank of full general. It is true that on receipt of a strongly-worded, protest from the Diploma tii; Body the Chinese hastened to declare that there had been a mistake and the Presidential mandate was worded wrongly, but it was tin explanation ivhich deceived nobody. Following immediately upon this came the announcement in the vernacular Pi'ess that Governor Yen Hsi-shan of Shansi was to be removed from his post as soolVas possible and one of the militarist supporters of Tsao Kun put in his place. General Yen has he"'a his command ever since the inauguration of the Chinese Republic, and, as is well known, he has devoted so much time and energy to his task that Shansi is generally known as the model province of China. Civil war has not touched it, brigands cannot operate in it, education and commerce are promoted in it, and the opium traffic has been put down with a firm I hand. . • ' ■ It must be explained that a large proportion of the Chinese officials make a good slice of their income by dealing in opium, which is officially condemned only to be winked at and condoned in practice. There is thus operating in North China a Chinese company which manufactures and distributes "Golden Pills," stated to be a specific against "pain," which are composed chiefly of opium. ■Information has now come to hand fromreliable, sources that" no less a person than Marshal Tsao Kun was. and possibly is, avshareholder and director in tin?' company-.* This may help to explain why Governor Yen of Shansi and the new President do not see eye to eye.