Correspondence
came. Many units of the Chinese Expeditionary Force have gone away and there are still more to go. Five battalions are to stay—two here and three in Shanghai, but as we see cruisers and transports heading for the Limoon Pass and the open sea we feel that the curtain is being rung down on yet another scene of the Chinese melodrama.
We are sorry to lose so many of the soldiers and sailors who came so unexpectedly at the beginning of this year. It was very pleasant to dine at the Hong-Kong Club with an officer of the Guards who had never heard of Hong-Kong and who was so refreshing, just because he was a Pharaoh who did not know the local Josephs and was not particularly keen on meeting them. But a battalion of the Scots Guards is still with us, housed in a camp of wooden huts at Shamsuipo.
" Theirs not to reason why," but I wonder what they really think of this China business and the part which they have been called upon to play in it.
People write home about Changs and Wus and Wongs and Fengs and Fangs, not to mention Kuomintangs and Kuominchuns and Ankuochuns : the very names perplex and infuriate, yet the present condition of China is not difficult to understand.
May I, Mr. Editor, at the risk of boring your readers, be allowed to quote what a very well informed member of the North China Daily News said recently in that paper ?-
"China," he wrote, " has been in political confusion since the founding of the Republic because of the common error in all factions in Chinese affairs that unification can only be accomplished by military force. Millions of wealth, which might have gone into making China a powerful nation, has been wasted in a huge coolie army which has achieved nothing in sixteen years but a greater disorganization, a wider separation, a destruction of property and a loss to China of the respect of the nations of the world. No distinction can be made between the northern and the southern armies • they have been equally destructive, evil and anti- nationalistic in their accomplishments." • •
After sixteen years of fighting to achieve unification China is to-day divided politically into ten units :—
" Each one of these units has an enormous army which has to be clothed, equipped and fed and which is placing on the country a burden which she cannot stand. There are no exact figures of the size of China's army at the present time. Roughly the numerous groups are probably feeding 3,000,000 men. And the numbers are increasing. The only limitation which a military man places upon himself is the number of rifles he can obtain. Every general is in the market and every treasurer is seeking money to pay for them. The necessity for funds has forced commanders of troops to relinquish areas, which have been taxed beyond their ability to pay, for new areas held by other commanders. This means perpetual warfare."
And yet we read that three representative ladies (one English, one French, and one American) are now on their way to China to convey to the women of that unhappy country the sympathy which the women of England, France, and the United States feel towards their Chinese sisters in their plucky struggle against foreign aggression. It is to be hoped that these ladies will avoid all danger zones ; considerations of personal safety would not of course weigh with such heroines, but they might be kidnapped and the ransom which their admiring sisters would so readily put up might go to the purchase of more rifles.
Meanwhile, life in Hong-Kong at the moment is a physical joy. We were soundly beaten by Shanghai in the interport polo and we are now looking forward to the interport cricket matches. The Fanling links are lovely, and games—cricket, football, golf, lawn tennis, hockey, polo, and bowls—are the order of the gorgeous day. There is also yacht and pony- racing. The Muffing hunt_ has not got going yet, but it is holding meetings preparatory to meets.
His Excellency and Lady Clementi are still away. in Japan with their two daughters, and their son and the Colonial Secretary and Mrs. Southorn are reigning gracefully though temporarily at Government House. The alleged pirates whom the IA caught and brought back from Bias Bay iiave all been committed for trial. Some people are saying that the submarine should not have fired at the ' Irene,' others that the Irene's ' rudder should have been the mark. But the lieutenant who did the business is not downhearted. It was at least a wonderfully dramatic incident and the rescue work was marvellous.—I am, Sir, &c.,
YOUR HONG-KONG CORRESPONDENT.
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