THE CHINESE MAZE

Wairarapa Age, 8 February 1927, Page 5

THE CHINESE MAZE

CHEN ON NATIONALIST ASPIRATIONS. ‘ 4. ■J) . i ■' BRITAIN BACKING THE WRONG HORSE. DYING FEUDALISM IN PEKIN. (Received Monday, 11.35 p.m.) PEKIN, February 7. Eugene Chen, in a speech to Chinese and foreigners, commenting on Sir Austen Chamberlain’s speech at Birmingham, said he was “afraid that there was a common misapprehension in each pronouncement lately made on the present situation in China of the great secular principle which, through the disarrays and changes of the day, was working out an independent, modern, State in China. It was the principle of freedom, liberty and independence.

4 ‘ln its internal aspect,” Chen added, 4 4 this principle is manifested in the Nationalist movement against Chinese feudalism in the double form of the Mandarinate that misrules at Pekin and the decaying militarism which sustains the bandit power of Chang Tso-Jin and his fellow freebooters. Externally, the £ anie principle is expressing self in the Nationalist struggle w‘th foreign Imjcrbilis-m, especially m the specific phase of the struggle concurrently known as the anti-British movement. An incomplete grasp of this principle leads the Powers concerned to a conclusion which is objectively false. This is particularly true of Britain, with Chinese Nationalism, but. instead of frankly and courageously dealing with the only Government that can make an effective and binding peace with her, she retakes the old cart road to Pekin in order to associate with the anti-Nationalist authorities there with the negotiation of a settlement on questions which Chinese Nationalism has compelled the British and others to envisage as vital and urgent. The irony of the position is that whilst Sir Austen Chamberlain in his Birmingham speech implies that negotiations solely with the Nationalists would involve .recognition of a division of China, lie is applying a diplomatic technique that would infallibly bring about a real division of the country. He has communicated simultaneously to the Nationalist Government and to the feudal authorities in Pekin certain proposals which, if negotiated in the manner desired by him, must cleave China into Nationalist China with its government at Wuhan and Feudalist China, with its anti-Nationalist Government at Pekin. The vice in this diplomacy lies in the persistence of the Pekin complex in the mind of British Imperialism. The latter admits through its Foreign Secretary the fundamental reasonableness of the demand for treaty revision which is the fundamental objective of Chinese Nationalism in its struggle with alien Imperialism. Instead of working on this fact seriously and realistically with the sole Government that' derives its sanction and authority from Chinese Nationalism, Britain continues to twiddle with Chinese feudalism in Pekin. For fifteen years, Britain has looked to Pekin for a Government that will govern and bring peace to a harassed country.. To-day, Pekin is dying, and Britain, her chief sustainer, is facing the greatest erisis in her career in Hie Far East. Between Chinese Nationalism and Chinese. Fdudalr ism there can be no compromise, and the moment has come for the British to decide whether their trade , and commerce is to flourish in an independent Nationalist China or continue to decline in an unfree Feudal China.”— (A. and N.Z.)

AMERICAN PROPOSALS. FOR SAFEGUARDING SHANGHAJ. (Received Monday, 6.50 p.m.) WASHINGTON, February 6. The text of the proposal of Mr. Kellogg (Secretary of State) to the Chinese factions to exclude the International Settlement of Shanghai from the area of armed conflict, states: 44 The' fate of American interests in the settlement occasions great anxiety to the American Government. The interests of Chinese people and foreign, nations to a supreme degree require that here order shall prevail. The American Government is confident that the Chinese military commanders will lend their sincere support to the. proposal that the settlement be excluded from the area of armed conflict, so that American citizens and other foreigners may receive adequate protection. The American Government will be ready to become a party to friendly, orderly negotiations, properly instituted and conducted, regarding the future status of the settlement.”—(A. and N.Z.)

ATTITUDE OF SOVIET.

(Received Monday, 6.50 p.m.). MOSCOW, February 6.

' 44 If England really desires to satisfy the national aspirations of China, ttyjn her ground for supposing Bolshevik intrigues disappears and it is possible for quiet discussions to begin between Britain and the Soviet.” Thus the newspaper 44 Izvestia” sums up the Russian Government’s attitude on China, adding, 4 ‘The Soviet’s support Bismarck’s view against participating in an unavoidable conflict.” The 44Izvestia’s” statement follows on Litvinoff’s announcement that because Russia sympathise with the Cantonese, it need not hinder the latter from establishing good relations with Britain.—(A. and N.Z.).