New-York tribune., 1920-12-19
Cina's Peace
Declaration a
Financial Ruse
Proclamation Announcing
Reunion of North and
South Regarded as Merely
a Scheme to Float Loans
Canton Still Independent
Signers of ''Reunification
Mandate" Quickly Ousted
by Revolutionary Power
BY Nathaniel. PeffeY

fEklNG, Dec. 1.-They cry peace,
peace in China. and there is no peace,
A national reuniication" mandate has
gone forth from Feking proclai inning
exultingly the end OF the civil war that
! has divided North ana South for three
years. All OF which, it may be said.
"a merely another gesture In The typical
Chinese political play-acting that de-
ceives no Chinese, is intended to de-
ceive no Chinese, and is calculated only
70 gull the foreigner with his money
bags, from which loans many happily
come forth. And the foreigner has
been saying that there shall be no
loans until the country ia reunited.
What has happened is this: a tele-
gram has been sent 10 Pekine from
Canton, the Southern capital, rescind-
ing the South's declaration Of indie
pendence and placing it once more un-
der the orders Of the central govern
ment. But the men wno senS tie tele-
graiA have themselves been ousted from
power in Canton by s revolution
against the rebels. Their declaration
represents nobody but themselves. To
aii Intents and purposes the South is
independent Of the Pekire government
sa much SIS II ever was.
Independent Government set Up
The South. five provinces led by the
perpetually refractory Canton, broke
away from PeSing in 1917 after Il mill
tarist coup thst overthrew Parliament.
Under the leadership or Sun Tat-scn,
Wu Tingfs and Tang Shao-yi, ali
c9 whom arc known in America, WI
and TanY having been ministers at
Washington. an independent govern
Inent was set up. 1t prociar rlcd the
rekine government an illegal govern
ment as il undoubtedly w'as. and took
It's own stand on the principle Of
consttutIonalisnl.
1t WAS not long before 4 split deveI~
oped in Canton along the same lines
as had caused the split from Pelsing.
That is, the military power on which
feEing began 10 assert itself, and there
was division between constitutional
alist government SCI op 10 combat the
militarist govern .ncnt in Pekine. The
mi!itarists of tNe South began intric-
uing with the nnilitarists OF the North,
and first Sun Iat-sen and then tho
others we're forced to leave Canton. For
year thc Canton government has been
under the thumb Of men Of the same
character as the men who governed
Tekine and in sympathy with them.
Peace has not been made partly be
cause the Cantonese population un-
doubtedly is in sympathy with the Sun
Yat-sen-Tang Shao-yi faction ard
partly because tne military mer in 'he
South could reap richer harvest in
an independent government, IN that
they could l<oeY the local taxes FOR
thensslvcs instead OF turning them
over TO the officials OF Peking.
Pence Confcranc~ E43I,
The peace conference that was
opened in 1918 has in consequence
dragged along ever since and finally
broken up, with little loss to anybody,
since there has been no fighting.
neither side having either money, stort-
ach or desire for combat. the result
being, az somebody has said, th~G the
differences between China and Europe
was that Europe had peace conferences
and no peace while China had peace
and no peace conference.
Two months ago, however. there was
a revolution launched against the
rebels. Under orders Of the indefatiga-
bic insurgent. Sun yat-sen. an arnlv Be-
gan macnlne on Canton from Fuxien,
lie province further north. Just as il
was entering Canton the defeated GOV
crnmens issued rs telegram to peking
rsnouncing The independence Of the
South and coming hsc.. iuto the fold
Of PeAing. Hence the reunii;catiou
mandate and the declaration Of pcace.
which had no sooner been issued than
manifesto was circulated by Sun Yet
sen, WI Ting-fang. Tang Shao-yi and