No. 2.—PEEING. [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sirr,.-- 7 The latest
phase of the China puzzle has produced a striking anomaly. For a long time Marshal Chang Tso-lin has been proclaiming to the world that his whole efforts have been directed towards ridding China of the Bolshevist menace. Last year he raided the Soviet Embassy here and published documents which proved beyond all doubt how deep-laid was the Moscow plot in China. Now the -Nationalists have taken a leaf out of his book and gone a step further. All Soviet consulates in Nationalist territory have been ordered to close and the Consuls have been given their passports. In Canton some of the Soviet Consulate staff paid the penalty of death for endeavouring to establish a Communist Government in that city.
. Although Chang Tso-lin may claim to have set the South an example, their act has robbed him of his cause of war. ,However, the war still goes on, the Nationalists having taken Hsuchowfu and being on the borders of Shantung as I write, and the North doing its utmost to repel the advance. The fact at last glaringly brought out is that both sides are fighting for themselves, for dominion over this vast country.
Optimists see in the present juncture an opportunity of making peace between North and South, a kind of armed neutrality which is at present the best that can be hoped for. It is not disguised in Peking that for some time there have been delegates passing between Peking and Nanking, but so far no basis on which a peace could be proclaimed has been reached.
In the North fighting is in the life-blood of the militarists, who fight because it is their profession and because the fruits of success are personal power and gain. Whatever one may think of Nationalism now, there is undoubtedly a bit of, patriotism mixed with the same ideas that prevail in the North. Their leaders love fighting for its own sake, but in addition they do believe that Nationalism is the salvation of China.
The crying need of the country and its four hundred millions is peace. Where the tide of war has flowed back and forth during the past year famine and starvation now stalk. In Shantung alone, the China International Famine Relief Commission is doing its best to care for four million starving Chinese, brought to their present state by war 51irectly and by a famine which is partly the result of war. From this same area hundreds of thousands of Chinese are annually journeying to Manchuria. Highways and byways between Shantung and Manchuria are thronged with emigrants, their few household goods and the younger members of families stacked upon the backs of uncomplaining donkeys; slowly making their way from war-stricken areas to a promised land. In the last few years several millions of Chinese have gone this way to Manchuria, and the tide is still flowing in that direction.
An example of the straits to which the pestilence of war is bringing the country has just been provided by Tientsin. In that city the Chihli Provincial Bank, a Government institu- tion, suddenly stopped payment. The note issue amounts fti-liwer sixteen million dollars and the whole lot has been discredited. Foreign journalists who called upon the bank's pfcials fdrastatement were startled by what they were told. "Eiliding the bank has issued far more notes than it has silver we decided to suspend payment on the notes pending some sOlution of the present position of the bank, which has been embarrassed by the increasing demands made upon its resources to find money with which to pay the troops nini.ia Tientsin," said the bank's secretary. guar a statement would haVe received instant attention Of the judicilil authorities .in any country but China It is unguestionably true that in issuing notes far beyond its capacity to redeem them, the bank was forced by the
militarists, who also forced the merchants to accept the notes when issued. The solution evolved by the bank and the provincial authorities is ingenious. It has been decided to create new taxes which will be payable in discredited notes. In other words, sixteen million dollars' worth of notes can only be used in payment of taxes and the bank and the provincial authorities benefit to the extent of what silver reserves there were to back up the note issue. What the taxes will be like can be judged from the statement by bank • officials that the institution will be on its feet again in three months.
The taxes are a new house tax (there is already one), and what can be literally translated as a " sign-board tax," which will be levied on every business in Chihli province. Such frenzied finance can have but one ending, and it is earnestly to be hoped that peace will be granted to this troubled country before the uttermost limits of such folly are reached.—
Previous page
