THE MAN WHO COVETS SHANGHAI.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 May 1927, Page 4

THE MAN WHO COVETS SHANGHAI.

(By .}. 11. i JJKK.M.AN. in the J.oudoi •• Daily Alai!

Whereas Air Eugene Chon, i 1 10 Cantonese Foreign .Minister, lias become a Tamiliar personality, little is known in this country about C'hang Kai-shek, ihe Cantonese Cominander-in-Cliief. Of the two, Chang is much the more remarkable ligttre. lie is the Napoleon of the new China.

Cluing is still only 39. He was horn in IHSS in a village between Hangchow and Xingpo—in the district across which the armies have been sweeping on the way to Shanghai. His father died before ( hang was a year old. His mother was poor, and his early years were passed with relatives. The intention was that he should become a merchant. He showed no aptitude for trails and was sent to the military college, and later—he was then 21—to the officers’ academy.

Ail army career was clearly indicated. He proved, indeed, one of the most industrious cadets in the academy. and ho was sent to Japan to complete his military studies. Strangely enough, it was there that he first came under the influence of the late Sun Yat-sen, founder of the revolutionary Cantonese movement, and when he returned to China he was an ardent revolutionary.

Years were to pass before he was given a post of real power and one in which ids military gilts could serve the revolution. It was not, in fact, until Sun appointed Chang to take charge of the -Whampoa Militnrv College at Canton that Chang had his first big chance. He took it with both hands. A record landmark in his career came when Sun sent him to Moscow to study the tactics and the technique ot

modern war. Whatever the Cantonese Army is today is due in largest -part to this young man. C hang Kai-shek. He may be said to have trained it both in the class-room and on the battlefield. It was on his word of command that the march to Hangkow was undertaken; it was his order which committed tlic Cantonese Army to the battle for Shanghai ; and it is his gift of leadership that has enabled the Cantonese to rout the niimeiieaily superior forces of •Sun Chuan-fang.