The Alaska daily empire., 1923-02-01
CANTON AGAIN IS VORTEX OF
 GREAT STRIFE
Ancient Chinese City Now Center of PoliticalsMill-
 tary Whirlpool.

l CANTON Fob. 1 - Canton, the l"City of Rams founded more than 900 years before the Christian era, known to Arab voyagers us far back as the tenth century. and times without number the center of attack and revolution. again is in the vor-I tex of one Of Chind's political-mili-l l tary whirlpools.
 Dutch, Portuguese and English ] followed in the footsteps of the dar- ] ing Semitic nayigators, each seeking l trade and each bringing interna ! tional complications
 I Always a mart of the Eastern world, kings and emperors of the Chou, Chin, Han. Sui, Tang, Mingl and other dynasties found 1t a prize worth fighting for. and when theI Il revolution CT 1911 overthrow the Manchu throne, il was Sun Yat-sen, l Ia man of Canton. or kwanstung, 1 as it is called in Chinese. who well comed the liberal thought of the city l l: and province into the first Chnesel l: republic.
 ! Later, in 1917. when Premier : Tuan Chi-jui dissolved the consti- l : t,ltional parliament at Picking and the militarists regained control. iti : was to Canton that Sun Yat-sen fled. 1 !: There he gathered about him hisi followers and launched the republieI l: of South China.
 jts Bolstered Up.
 In the face of financial, pOliticali : and military odds Sun held his gov : ernment together and bolstered itI with such pillars of Chinese public : life as the late Wu Ting-fang, oncei : Minister to Washington. one of thel . outstanding Chinese of his age, and : General Chen Chiung-ming. the pro- gressive military leader, who mod : ernized Canton and who later turned : against his leader.
 : Last June, after General Chen, : purposely or by accident, had retired from Canton to his home town of : Waichow, fifty miles away, one of his adherents, Yip Kue, attacked Sun !: Yat-sen and drove him and his fol- 5 lowers from the city.
 Previously Sun had backed the |. acy at Peking, and with the fall of : Chang Tso-lin. the "warlord of Man churia, before lhe attacks of Wu : Pei-fu advocate of constitutional government, much of Suns prestige was lost.
 g Reverses Come. On top of this came the collapse of Suns expedition into Kwangsi Province. with the object of winning the Yang-tse Valley and opening a road to Peking, and when Tip Kue
 struck. Suns defense erumbled and
 he fled, a lonely fugitive, for his life.
 His wife, a staunch supporter in
 all his wanderings over Europe and
 Asia as he preached the gospel of
 republicanism, remained behind to
 hold the fort Only when Tip Kue's
 victorious troops battered down the
 stockade of tine compound did she
 leave. and in the guise Of peasant
 woman, under the hail of bullets,
 seek safety in retreat
 She joined her husband at Wham-
 pao, above Canton on the Pearl
 River, and there they maintained
 their headquarters as long as the
 navy remained loyal. However. ar
 rears of pay, the evil spirit that has
 wrecked more Chinese armies than
 the swords of their enemies, scuttled
 the steadfastness of the navy and
 the Suns escaped to the British col
 onial city of Hongkong, from which
 they made their way to Shanghai. !. Political Int1igues. At Shanghai, Sun entered neeo-
 tfations with the various political factions of the country, always
 maintaining the stand that he
 sought only the reunion of his coun-
 try, but steadfastly refusing to go
 to Peking and assist in the re- mobilization of the old constitutional parliament.
 Reports from Shanghai during the
 last few months indicate that as the , star of the Peking regime. backed by , Wu Pei-fu, wanted before the grow ing military movement, Suns pres
 tlge revived. His followers in the
 Peking parliament. at his instruc- tions it is said, blocked legislation With the assertion that a parliament recalled to life by miIitarists had no authorty to make Chinese laws. Wu Ting-tang died and Chen iChiung-ming, proflting by Tip Kue'sI
 coup. ruled in Canton, but Sun. despite the loss of these two power- ful supporters, reiterated his old de-
 claration that he would "come back to Canton.
 Early in January of this year, his promises seemed on the verge of full
 llment. Chen's treasury ran low, his troops became mutinous. Sun Yat-l sen armies appeared in the north oTl
 hwangtung province and in thel heart or neighboring Fukien, Wu- Ichow and Samshui fell away from Chen into possession of Suns troops. and, finally, Chen himself, taking ms stan, retired to Waichow, whence ne had come six months before to seize the rens of government as they