FIGURES IN CHINA.

Shannon News, 15 February 1927, Page 3

FIGURES IN CHINA.

MASTER FROM MOSCOW.M *-^^H BRITAIN'S RELENTLESS fA Behind the present activities ofl| victorious Cantonese forces in tion of Hankow and threatJH Shanghai moves Britain's . Russian enemy, Jacob Borodin, w Mr. J. S. Cox', who was imprisoneJß the Reds at Canton, in the Daily Wk Arriving in Canton shortly bfl the death of Sun Yat Sen, BbM quickly installed himself as mastMJ Sun's successor, Chiang Kai-shek;.™ is a Lettish Jew, tall and thinly lfl with broad cheek-bones and a pfl unwholesome-looking face. HisajM about 45. ."-*■ I had an excellent opportunity stv.dying him one day in SeptenH 1925* at the Cantonese "Governing headquarters on the Canton BH where I spent a portion of my~H tivity when I was imprisoned, in, J pany with another British jourmß by the Chinese Reds. ",.l Dressed in a soiled white drill ■ and a dirty solar topee, Borodin CS into the Kuomintang headquarter* hold one of his almost daily cpjfl ences. He arrived on foot,.in nog of "state," and was bareheaded Russian woman carrying attache case, and another man asfl tidy as himself. -"■ The sentry and other soldiers itiM courtyard presented arms in the\sH modic Chinese fashion and GenH Wong, Chiang Kai-shek's .chiefl staff, came down the steps of the hM ing and kow-towed with much <fl inony. Borodin spoke haltingly in sfl darin dialect. -"*■ Ruthless and resQurceful, and *;■ sessing a considerable personal ifl netism, Borodin is a worthy repreß tative of his masters in Moscow.- -;■ His brains were behind the gen strike of the Chinese in Hong Konj 1923, which was controlled from--* ton, and he is said to have engine! the firing by Whampoa cadets of foreign concession at Shameen. - =~ It was the retaliatory firing byi British and French detachments,. -\ many casualties to the Chinese agg sors, that directly led to the Cai boycott, which involved such ei inous loss to Hong Kong. .' With the full authority and all" resources of the Soviet behind 1 Borodin has supplied the money,: munitions and the trained Bus* military instructors to make the C tonese army what it is to-day. In less than two years he has tn formed what was then a eomparatfr {mall rabble of raw levies into a \ and more or less disciplined fight force, of whose formidable chara? the British Government appears at., to have become aware. . MARSHAL SUN CHUAN-FANC Marshal Sun Chuan-Fang, -thfc-a Red Chinese leader who is endeayc ing to stop the Cantonese advance Shanghai, comes from the -rovince Shantung and received his unlit training in'Japan. He then filled \ ious rasponsible military posts. 1923, thanks tc General Wu Pei-F influence, he became Comnsandei Chief of the troops in Fukien, i later Military Governor of the J vinee of Chakiang. In that capac he allied himself with General F( and General Wu Pei-Fu, and •'- October, 1925, < eenpied Shanghai af the troops of Marshal Chang Tsohad withdrawn In November, 19 thanks to' his intervention, Chanj army was defeated. After Wu Poland Chang had joined fori and driven Feng from the fi< Sun Chuanfang retired to his nat ; province, which, along with tho p vinces of Chekiang, Fukien, Kiang Anhwei and Kiangsi, and with Sha: hai, he brought together as an adm istiative unit at the beginning of li Then, at the end. of May, he proelain this region a State indeperdent : Pekin. For that purpose he commj dee-red the salt tax within its confin Public opinion in China appeared to i prove of this action by Sun, who tl became o'ie of the most important p sonages in China. In September, 19 he mobilised for a campaign- agaii the." Red" Cantonese forces. He fl assured of a supply of munitions fri Chang, who guaranteed the integr: of the northern frontiers of Sun's p vinces. On September 3th he addre ed a challenge to a fight to a finish the Cantonese general, Chiang K shek, in which he accused the latter, wishing to transform the Chinese i tional flag into the Soviet flag, and'/ clared that unless the Ct.ntanese troc were withdrawn from Kiangsi, Hun and Hup.3h in 24 hours- he would be responsible for the consequences; was estimated then that Sun could raS about 200,000 men, but his opponen were said to be stronger and bett equipped with modern appliances, ai the results have pioved such to be t case.