The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 1927. CHINA IN NRANSITION.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 March 1927, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 1927. CHINA IN NRANSITION.

Tiif. situation in China is still preen rioues, but it has changed perceptibly for tile better during the past few days, considers an exchange. The agreement concluded lie tween the British envoy and the Cantonese in regard to Jviu-Kiang appears to be equitable, and as it has apparently satisfied the Chinese it may serve as a useful precedent in regard to similar concessions elsewhere. Shanghai is still the main centre of interest, hut there, too. the situation has for the moment improved. The local Chinese authorities, for their own sakes, have taken vigorous steps to keep the reolutionary elements among the populace under control, and whatever be the outcome of the conflict now pending between the Northern troops and the Cantonese, the arrival of the British and American contingents at Shanghai has suitably impressed the Chinese, and at the same time given the foreigners at the great port a much-needed assurance of protection and safety. But. after all, the tension at Shanghai and the disputes over the concessions at Hankow and Kiu-Kiang are merely subordinate episodes in the great struggle by which Chinn is now convulsed. The really

important factor in the present situation is the emergence of Nationalism, as a potent and uncontrollable for.c, and it is from this point of view that vc must regard the civil war, as well as the crisis in which so many European interests are now involved. The revolt of the Cautoiie--e and the turmoil: a ui (he Southern republic were due chietly to the widespread convict inn that the Peking Government was not inefficient, but. traitorous, and it. had sold the interests of the people to the bated foreigner. It is patriotic sentiment that underlies the whole Nationalist movement, ami ‘A, iiiua tor the Chinese” is the rallying cry of the forces now marshalled under the Kuomintain., banners. These considerations

throw an instructive light upon one of the most interesting features ol the revolutioary movement in China -the cn-ojK'ration of the Cantonese v. itb the Bolsheviks. So far as the Soviet 0:i----vernment is concerned, there is a great mass of evidence to prove that its -. j■ i issaries have been extremely act lie of bite in Southern China, and the Bolshevik hierarchs at Moscow have frankly urged their disciples to slir up trouble in China, morn especially with the object of embarassing and injuring Britain. No doubt the heads of the Kuomintalig party have utilised Bolshevik symnatliy and assistant o. and they would have been blind to their own interests to refrain from doing so. Buf ibis does not mean that lire Cantonese “rebellion" or the triumphal progress of the Southern armies have been organised by the Bolsheviks, or that the succeses of the Kiioiiiintang are largely owing to Bolshevik inlerveiil ion. Still, less does it mean that, if the .Nationalists are ultimately victorious, they will regard the Bolsheviks as their saviours, or that they will fashion their new (lovenmient on the model of the Moscow Soviet. No doubt the Bolsheviks would secure ascendancy at Cantoil if they could. But the dissensions now reported between i.lie Kuomiiitailg leaders and file Bolshevik agents confirm our conviction that, though the Nationalists are .exploiting Bolshevism to serve their own ends, the movement they have initated is intensely patriotic, and that their slogan is not “the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.'’ but “Chinn for the Chinese."