A Visitor from :Manchuria
I-11HE wars, famines, floods, typhoons, brigands,' Mid Bolsheviks of the' Far East bewilder and even bore me with their unfamiliar names V and criss-cross purposes. It- might all be happening On Mars instead of Within ten days of London by air and rail.
But when a friend asked me recently Whether I Would like to meet one of Chang-TSo-lin's generals who had occasion to Witness the unmasking of the propaganda carried on by the Soviet Embassy in China, VJWas delighted. I dislike Communists, and admire the little ex-guerrilla leader who saved Asia from anarchy, and who nearly became an Emperor. The Marshal has 'always seemed to me a romantic figure, a modem Genghiz, with his military genius and staunchness to his friends. So I sought out General' Linson-E; Dzau at the first opportunity.
The General was educated at West Point and left that Academy to become Secretary to the late Dr. Wellington Koo, then Chinese Ambassador in .Washington. Later, he became English Secretary to Dr. C. T. Wang (now Foreign Minister) at the Peace Conference, and in 1922 he was Treasurer to the Washington Conference. After that he became for a time a Professor in a College at Peking, and in 1926- went to Manchuria; first as the organizer of a technical school in Chang-Tso-lin's arsenale and later as the Marshal's special representative to the British and American Embassies in Peking. I asked him whether he did not consider the late Marshal as the saviour of his country, and one of the 'greatest figures in recent history.' • General Dzau would not admit (perhaps he was too polite to do• so) that Chang-Tso7lin Was . pre-eminent smong the statesmen he has met, but he Certainly considers that his late chief saved China from-Bolshevism.
" He . was a small man," he said, " — with a .mild Manner, as I daresay you have heard. Yet no one .ever entered his presence without being impressed by his personality, or left it without feeling invigorated by contact with his clear and forceful mind.' -You_ may have heard stories about our gambling all night. They are linite untrue. We used to play mah-jong after dinner, between our day's work and our night's -Work; while we were waiting for the officials of the administra- tion to assemble, but from 11 p.m. until 3 a.m., or later, We invariably held a War Council. The Marshal, never went to bed until- 4 a.m. Naturally visitors seeing us at play after dinner concluded that we continued until dawn; for they knew that there was always activity in the Headquarters Staff until that hour. The truth is that most of the important decisions, whether strategic or political, were taken during-the night. The Marshal's greatest -interest, apart from his political and military activity, was in education. When. he was killed it was found that all his personal property, amounting to more than £1,500,000, was left to the schools in-Manchuria. His son, Chang-Hsueh-liang, the present Governor- General of the North-Eastern Provinces, is carrying on the work his father began in education and -bringing his country into line with Western thought.' He plays golf and tennis, takes the keenest of interest in all forms of industrial development and is introducing various measures of • reform in .conformity with the democratic institutions now being initiated by the Nanking Government."
General Dzau is over here on business, so I inquired what he thought about our own position in China. His comments were quite candid, but to me they sound encouraging. _ "We want British _help badly, -both on the technical . _ and financial side Your people- have a good and faith-irate knowledge of China and are deservedly trusted. It is true -that some of your Old-established firms will have to change their stereotyped methods. of .doing business. Many firms, for in-stance, have seen the wisdom of doing away with the compradai system and enabling English. and Chinese business men to meet each other . face to face. Young-China has largelYbeen trained in America, as.I have in self Some of us are ultra-rnodern—too modern perhaps, too estranged from Chinese tradition, for there is some truth, I am afraid, in the assertion I sometimes hear that the reputation of my countrymen for honesty is not being upheld as strictly as it should be. But can you altogether wonder at it, after all these years of war in South and Central ,China ? Even, SO, you in the West tend to exag- gerate the loosening of the moral code, and in Manchuria, where we have enjoyed -a- stable- gOyernment for the last quarter of a century ever since the Russo-Japanese War, 'Mille the -rest Of the country was in turmoil, the weird of our -business men and Merchants has been and will always be as good as our bond. •Chang-TsoLlin never failed to carry dat. hispIedges and the present Governinent will Continue his tradition. • . . . .
" The opportunities for development in the Provinces of Heilungkiang, Kirin, Liaoning and Jehol are enormous. They, are practically unexplored from a geological stand- point, but ,there is good reason to believe that they will prove richer, than Yunnan, already. an important Mining area. There is hardly , a stream in the North io which gold. cannot_ be panned, and there. is .abundant placer gold _near the Amur and Aim Yire have great undeveloped coal-fields, silver-lead and copper deposits, and enormous areas of rich agricultural land standing empty. Last year two million people poured into these four Provinces from the overcrowded and war wrecked regions of Central China. Why ? Because they knew there was peace and freedom here and a chance:to "make good " after four or five years' hard work. These new. settlers don't mind work, provided they can work, for themselves and not for the brigands who have preyed on them in the past. This year we expect a million more— and that is quite enough for our welfare staffs and agricultural inspectors. You can imagine that with such an influx of-people and the natural resources we -possess, we have need of .the best financial and technical aid we can get.'
That I could imagine, although the number of the immigrants staggered me. Lately I have seen how the new settlers in Greece are building up the prosperity of that country at an amazing .rate. Evidently the same thing is likely to happen in Manchuria, on an even larger scale, following the well-known rule that everything that happens in Asia is of vast proportions. A tidal wave kills 50,000 Chinese and we read of it on a back page of -our daily papers. 'The "Master of Thrones and Crowns" conquered -half the world, but he is hardly mentioned in our histories. And now there is an Eldorado up there-in the North whose rivers run gold and to -whose virgin prairies two million men and women went last year without
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