CHINA NEEDS A MASTER

Southland Times, Issue 18847, 12 June 1920, Page 11

CHINA NEEDS A MASTER

A PREY TO PERSONAL AMBITIONS. Tlvre is. much unrest ju-l now among the Tuc hurts (military governorsi and high military commanders, writes the Pekin correspondent of the Loudon Times. Yunnan armies in Kwangtung under rival generals have been lighting, counter military denionstations have taken place in Honan, while in Hunan one northern general is reported to be moving against the provincial Tuchun, and another northern general has been surrounded in Shensi by provincial forces. High policy lias nothing to do with these manifestations, but merely personal aims and ambitions. The militarists of north and south are regrouping themselves in a constaxt endeavour to retain their position or acquire power, and nil are draining the country to no useful end whatever. The militarist incubus weighs more heavily than ever on the country, and all schemes for disbandment have vanished into thin air. There is always clanger, for the pay of the troops is anything from ihree to twelve months in arrears, and they may at any moment mutiny and loot from the populace what they cannot extract from the aut borides. The issue is no longer between north and south, but between feudal barons so weak of purpose that they will not really light for what they want. China badly needs a master. Meanwhile trade prospers, but it. would do so infinitely more if security were assured anti capital might, safely he employed in the interior. There is no hope of improvement. until the foreign powers present a united front to China arul rigorously deny funds for any but purely productive purposes. It is foreign money unconditionally lent that has brought things to the present pass.