New-York tribune., 1920-08-11
Pro Japanese
Party,'s Defeat
Pleases China
Overthrow of Anfu Club,
However, Unlikely to Cor
rect Problem of Mis-
government at Peking
Bloodless Revolts Farce
Little Hope That N e W
Government There Will
Appeal to Toxic for Aid
By Nathaniel PETER

PEKING, June 30. - Specifically
there is cause for rejoicing in China.
A bloodless political revolution has
taken place. In word, the pro-Japanese
party has been overthrown.
For nearly three years the country
has been in the power of and merc-
lcssly plundered and exploited by an
is they who, under the guise Of partic-
patton in the war against Germany,
built up strong military machine.
And partly because of the backing of
that machine and partly in order to
get the money to maintain it. it is
they who have been responsible for the
betrayals to Japan. Now, by a sudden
succession of maneuvers and a com
bination of circumstances that prove
again the incalculability of all things
political in China, they have been
swiftly laid by the heels at the time
when they seemed to be running
strongest
They have been defeated and sue
ceeded by another party generally
credited with virtuousness But it is
relative virtuousness. In the light
Of that fact and the disillusionment
that comes to those who have seen
these revolutions come and go before
and leave all essentials unchanged, one
modcrates ones cxultation.
Chinese War Game of Chess
To attempt to explain with any
clarity the convolutions, involutions
and double-crosscs in the nth power
that have brought this about wants
volumes to write and years to under
stand. Let there be emphasized only
the double-cross, executed with full
Chinese nicely in political matters.
The Anfu Club, as the party which
has been in power calls itself, had
grown too arrogant in the use Of it's
power. The military commanders and
civil officials on the outside became
1 tired of the crumbs dropped to them
and combined against the Anfu Club,
with the sympathy of the implacable
public hostility against the Anfu Club
as result of the Japanese betrayals
They combined and by a series of mill
tary movements got control of the rail
ways controlling Peking That meant
victory War here is not fighting. 1t
No Chinese general would commit
so reckless an indiscretion as to fight.
When he executes military maneuvers
| he moves comfortably in the rear of
his troops, surrounded by his servants
and his concubines, and solacn~ him
self with feasts and gambling for
stakes drawn from provincial taxes. II
ne succeeds in persuading or bribng
enough other generals to join him in
his maneuvers to outnumb Der those he
| is maneuvering against he wins. If
| he doesn't he lOXpg That of
war means in China.
Little Hsu" Dethroned
The center and symbol of this strug
Little Hsu," in full title General Hsu
Shu cheng. Little Hsu" has been a
combination Of stormy petrol and en-
fant terrible since he emerged from
obscurlty three years ago. He has shot
up to position OF the greatest power
in the land by virtue of his willing
ness to do something and his personal
courage, a rare quality among Chinese
military men He formed the Anfu
Club and has terrorized Peking and
large part of China ever since. Also
he antagonlzed too many of the other
military men, and now he has been
dCthroned.
A new Premier has been appointed
hostile to him. His nominees in the
Cabinet have had to get out For the
first time in three years the revenue
producing ministries, the Ministry of
! Communications and the Ministry Of
Fiuance, will be filled by men not OF
hs G!ctation, nor will their revenue be
turned over to him and his friends for
rheiE private use: Many of his troops
arc being taken from HIM
All of which might be more gratifv-
ing were not those who have succeeded
to control of the same kind and class.
They are distinguished from those who
have been III power by the fact that
they have been out. They are military
men, they are mandarins, they are re-
actlonaries, they are concerned chiefly
with their own ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, and
there is little hope that in powcr they
Will be far different from those that
preceded them. The problem of mis-
government in China is not question
of personalities; it is question of
class-the survival of a corrupt and ir-
responsible class from the last deca-
dent Manchu days.
Japan in Negative Role
What of Japans position? The jan
anese have not been without role in
this situation. 1t has been negative
role, for change. They have deserted
their Anfu Club tools for the first time
since they helped create them. That
was partly circumstance, partly design,
1t was circumstance in that the Jan
anese are faced with hard times at
hcme and no longer can devote a bic
war-earned surplus to political invest
ments IN China. They were. in short
unable to make the usual loans TO their
favorltes, the proceeds Of which could
be used for recruiting troops and bri-
berry. so they have lost their repre-
sentatlves In the Peking government.
But there was as much design as cir
cumstance. The policy of the japan
ese arlst-imperialists in China is
TO keep the waters muddied in Peking.
1t Is not good to let any one party get
TOO strong; it might become too indie
pendent. 1t is best to keep all parties
even in strength and all dependent
upon Japanese support and bidding for
It. The Anfu Club has been in control
long time. 1t has become marked
group, conspicuous for it's -Japanese
activities. 1t had fairly we'll lost its
usefulness. Also it was growing some
what exacting in its demands for COM
pensation for is services. Just as we'll
then, from Tokio's point of view tha t
there be a change.
Finances Only Aim
Nor is there much ground for
optimism that the new government
when the inevitable grouping and or