Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1932. THE SORROWS OF CHINA

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 89, 12 October 1932, Page 6

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1932. THE SORROWS OF CHINA

Though the establishnient of the Chinese Republic was not proclaimed ! till the 12th February, 1912, the outI break of the Revolution at Wuchang which overthrew the Manchu Dynasty occurred on the 10th October, 1911, and it ; was accordingly on Monday last that the twenty-first "anniversary of the Republic was celebrated by the 140 Chinese in Wellington and doubtless by millions of others in their Kbmeland and elsewhere. At all these^celebrations the. memory of; Dr. Sun Vat-Sen, the Father and first President of the. Republic, has of course been duly honoured, and inspiration has been1 derived from his example and from Kis writings. ■

For forty years, he.said in his will, I have-devoted- my, .energies, to' the cause of the National Revolution. The object o£ the latter, is to seek a-posi-tion of independent equality for China. ; .:-1 .The Revolution has not yet achieved its, object;" '.■•■':■"

As to the means of achieving this object Sim Vat-Sen referred to three of: his books, of which the "Three Principles ofjhe People", is regarded as..thevmost/ important. "What are the Three Principles of the People?" he asks.in this book, and his answer is:— ■•':•'.''

They-are Nationalism, Democracy, and Socialism. ' In other words, they are the-principles, of salvation of our country. They are a means to enable China to exist for ever in the world.

Under the heading "Nationalism" Dr. Sun writes in the "Three Principle" a as follows:—

China is now in a dangerous state. On the one hand- she has become a colony of every Great Power. The Powers have pressed us hard both economically and politically. On the other hand, our population has • been diminishing, while that of the Powers haa been rapidly growing. If that rate of growth ia kept on for another hundred years they cannot only conquer us, but also extinguish us as a race. In order to save our country and to preserve our race, we have first to recover the nationalistic spirit which we have lost in the last hundred jears. And for the revival of this spirit the prescriptions include the enlightenment of the people as to "the dangerous state of the country and the immediate effect of that state upon each one'of us," the organisation of the people into one strong organic I group, the revival of the old virtues, such as loyalty, filial piety, and love of peace, the revival of the old learning, and the revival of the old creative po^er, "the power which we once had in inventing new things."

We must do-all these things,.but aside trom that, we must also go out to Jearn what is beat in the West.

If so far-there, is an abstract and Utopian vagueness about Dr. Sun's precepts which suggests the philosopher or the moralist rather than the statesman, there is' 'no lack of sound common sense in the treatment of the second of his three principles—democracy. Ihe two .main grounds on which he supports this principle are the desire to . follow the political'l trend of the world,"^ and as "one of j the best means to put an end to our civil wars." But by following the trend of the world Dr. Sun does not mean a blind imitation of the West.

Take,' for instance,' he continues, liberty-and, equality, two of the basic elements in democracy. If we do not Know.or ; .forget to take into consideration their historical background, it would be Really dangerous to advocate them. In the past the Western peoples "f* tpo.;Uttlo pewonal freedom. So in all their revolutionary wars they fought hard tor liberty. Historically, this has not been, true in China. Our' people, thus far, have had too much personal freedom.. As,a result of that we have become; a plafe of sand and are helpless m face 6f,foreign imperialism and its. .economic; conquest." So what we neea now isnot to fight for more personal freedpm.but to sacrifice some'of our personal freedom in order to gain our national freedom.

He proceeds to add that "tliere is no S"r »hirs as el. ua% in . natural giifcs, thus showing himself on this point a good deal wiser than the much-praised founders of the American Constitution. But so far Both the visionary and the practical parts of,- Sun Vat-Sen's programme have been so cruelly disappointed, and indeed so completely falsified, that the reading of his will formed a more appropriate feature of the meetings held on the 19th September than of those which honoured the birthday of the Republic. As our Sydney correspondent reported in the letter which we published on Monday, die

first anniversary of the Japanese occupation of Mukden was observed by the Chinese in Sydney on the date mentioned as "a day of national humiliation." The most striking feature of the day was the meeting held at the headquarters of the Kuo Mm, Tang.

At 11 o'clock the audience rose, and for five minutes stood in silence, with heads • bowed, in commemoration of "the mournful anniversary of the Japanese' militarists' invasion of. the thre.e eastern provinces (Manchuria) of the Republic, of China." ... .While the people stood the chairman read in ringing tones the will of Dr. Sun VatSen, the document by which, a few years before his death, he charged the people of China to continue unceasingly the work to which he had devoted his life: .. .

The statements of Dr. Sun that "the unity qf the Chinese people has stopped short at the: clan and has not extended to the nation," and that it had become "a plate of sand" in the phrase already .mentioned, or "a sheet of loose sand," as he also expressed it, have been .confirmed in a steadily increasing degree during the sixteen years since the. death of Yuan-Shih-Kai spread the warfare of rival generals over immense areas of the country. The last word on the hopes with which Dr. Sun looked to democracy as "one of the best means to put an end to,our civil war" was the almost incredible report which reached us from Shanghai on Saturday. The latest anxiety of the Nanking Government is over the falling out of two more generals—uncle and nephew— in the Province of Szechuan, which includes a large part of the Yangtze Valley. , /■'

This, we are told, makes tiie <t7Bth civil war in the province in the past twenty years.

More than twenty civil wars in this one province for-every year of the Republic, and only a trifle less than one. a fortnight! At both the Sydney and the Wellington meetings stress was laid on the Communist menace, and at the former the fact that "a 1 Communist army was causing great havoc in the richest areas of China" was mentioned by Dr. Chen, the Chinese,Consul-General, as one of the contributing causes to the success of the Japanese coup in Manchuria. ■.

~ Regarding the recrudescence of a menace about whifth we used to -hear a good deal more five or six years ago, Mr. Owen M. Green writes in the "Spectator" of-the 3rd September as follows:— \ '-■

;'.: One.,'most serious factor in. China's situation is the' growth of Communism. At a rough estimate the Beds now control some 300,000 square miles of tie richest provinces of Central China, and 90,000,000 people. In recent months they have spread north as' well as south of the Yangtze, and if they could capture a: seaport—as, last June, they very nearly did get Amoy—through which Eussia could send them munitions, which- is their chief need. Nanking's doom might be sealed. /Then•.'•would follow, more expensive expeditions to protect foreign interests in the Treaty Ports and, not impossibly, the Powers would be obliged to reproduce in China Japan's military operations in 'Manchuria. *'■■■.

In every respect the condition of China is more distracted, more miserable, and more helpless than it was a year ago.; Yet we are told to-day that no fewer than fifteen members of the Central Executive Council have issued a circular telegram denounc-ing-the Lytton Commission^ report, defying the League of Nations, and calling for a military expedition to recover the lost Manchurian territory! China continues to be her own worst enemy.