CHINA: Nationalist Notes

¶ The famed port-city of Tientsin, from which Peking is reached, was surrounded on three sides, last week by Nanking Nationalist Armies and then quietly occupied.

¶.Of Tientsin’s former militarist masters the last to evacuate was blunt, bearish Marshal Chang* Tsung-chang, notorious during the present Civil War for his ruthless cruelty (TIME, March 7, 1927). As Chang’s armored train pulled out for Manchuria, he growled to correspondents: “I won’t answer questions! How should I know how many men I’ve got left, or how much money I’ve got left, or how many wives I’ve got left?”

¶.Luckless Chinese businessmen of Tientsin were “squeezed” by Chang Tsung-chang, last week, for over $300,000—a bribe which this Super-Brigand shamelessly exacted with threats that if it were not paid he would sack the city before evacuating.

¶.With the capture of Tientsin following that of Peking (TIME, June 4) the Nationalist flag now flies for the first time over all China except Manchuria — which is not part of “China proper,” but lies out side the Great Wall.

¶.Flushed with new potency the Nationalist Government issued last week an open declaration to all the Powers.

Excerpts:

“For eighty years China has been under the shackles of unequal treaties. . . .

“We are pleased to note since the latter part of 1926 that the spokesmen of the Powers have expressed their willingness to negotiate new equal treaties.

“Now that the unification of China has been consummated, we think the time is ripe … to begin at once to negotiate . . . new treaties on the basis of complete equality and mutual respect for each other’s sovereignty.

“With profound sincerity, the National ist Government in the name of the people of all China makes the foregoing declaration to the whole world.”

¶. Statesmen thought that the Nationalist Declaration will lead to negotiations of the very largest world import, IF, and only if the vast and various armies and “Nationalists” populations are now able to calling achieve a work themselves ing solidarity. Such professed National ists as Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang, who has a personal army of 195,000 men, are capable of resuming the status of regional dictators they have held in the past.

The North China Daily Mail said significantly last week: “Whether he uses his strength for good or evil, Feng Yu-hsiang is the strongest man in China today. . . .

“Despite opinions to the contrary, we cherish the hope that it will be for good.”

¶.Prospect of further conflict loomed when fiery Nationalist General Pai Chung-hsi, “The Hewer of Communist Heads,” declared at Peking, last week, that the Nationalist Armies will now extend their authority over Manchuria, while their enemies “scatter like dead leaves before the rising wind.”

¶.Since Japanese colonists teem in Manchuria, the spread of Chinese civil war to that province would be of gravest international concern; and the Japanese Government has long since averred that it will intervene to prevent such an eventuality (TIME, April 30).

¶.That such is still the intent of Japan was shown last week when Vice President Yousuke Matsuoka of the Japanese-owned South Manchuria Railway said : “Our policy, frankly, is peace at any price. . . . Japan will close the door to any Chinese army which seeks to carry on Civil War north of the Great Wall. . . .

Naturally we consider our interests sufficient reason for our actions. We may as well admit that Manchuria is strategically vital to Japan — it is our first line of de fense. Geographically, this is true. These are the facts which perhaps will cause us embarrassment, but we must face the situation and admit that things are as they are.”

* Not to be confused with and not related to: 1) The great Manchurian War Lord Chang Tso-lin, recently dictator at Peking, subsequently bombed in Mukden, Manchuria, and rumored to have died last week; or 2) Marshal Chang Hsueh-liang, son of the War Lord, and superior officer of Marshal Chang Tsung-chang.

*Red with one white star on a blue field in upper staff corner.