Evening star., 1924-05-19

Yuan-hung succeeded to the pres
dency. President Yuan-hung recalled
the National Council to Peking, and
the civil war ended. That war had
about equally divided the popula
tion of China, each side fnvolving
twice as many adherents as the en-
tire population of the United States
When the world war came Presi
dent Ii Yuanhung wanted to enter
on the side of the allies, but the
council voted neutrality, arguing that
China could accomplish little in a
European war and needed all her re-
sources to repair the unsettled con
ditions at home. President Lii there
upon dismissed the council and the
civil war reopened. Again Sun Vat
sen was elected president by the
council, sitting at Canton.
President Ii Yuan-hung borrowed
from Japan S10.000.0O0 and agreed 10
Japan's alleged extortionate terms.
as expressed in "twenty-one points"
which agreement is annually remem
bered by southern China in a Day
of National Shame"
President Ii, after dismissing the
National Council, organized a new
Council, known as the Bogus Coun-
Gill;" with which he elected, as his
successor. Hsu Shih-chang. the pres
ent incumbent Last fall President
Hsu dismissed the Bogus Council.
on the ground that it was Illegal,
what of the legality of a president
elected by what he himself charac-
teriZes as an illegal council?
Yet it is the militarist oligarchy
of President Hsu which has gainru
recognition of the powers of Europe
n n1 oh ~
influence of the international bank
ers, who had loaned their millions
illegally to the emperor and later
the president, against the sanction Of
the National Council
The Canton government-that O.
President Sun Yat- -sen-has offered to
assume all obligations for the money
borrowed by the Peking government.
but has repudiated all concessions
to foreign powers and stands for
China against foreign encroachments
Sun Yat-sen is represented by his OF
ponents as leaning toward the so
cialism of sovietism and by his ad-
herents, rather, as being merely for
the rights of the people against the
militariSm and the oligarchy Of
grafters. The adherents liken his 20
sition to the progressivism OF Theo
dore Roosevelt, not the radicalism Of
a Lenin.
The Chinese Republics constitution
appears to follow the essential lines
of our own in declaring that all
power is derived from the people. The
bin of rights appears identical with
our own AS the masses are wholly
uneducated, the popular vote is in
theory only, for it could not be ex-
pected that the hundreds of millions
who have lived as subjects of mon
archs and conQuerors could imme-
diately become capable of exercising
intelligently the popular franchise
since even in our own republic only
third of our authorized voters ever
vote.
Our Congress, in 1908, under Roose-
welt, remitted part of the Boxer up
rising indemnity, and few weeks
ago the balance was remitted, on con-
dition that the remitted money shali
be used in education. This does not
mean, in China, education of the
masses, but only higher education tor
the classes.
To Christian missionaries alone
must be credited all the work of edu-
eating the masses, but the Canton
government, under President sun
Yat-sen, promises compulsory schools
for all, as soon as peace is achieved,
with unity of China under the con-
stitution.
X X X x
The world owes much to EChtna-
Her civilization was splendid with
great edifices and great inventions
when western Europe was in the
caves of sa'vagery. A quarter of the
worlds land area and quarter of
the worlds population are Chinese
Yet with all their potential power,
the Chinese are never aggressive
Copyright, 1924, by Paul V. CoIlinAs