Evening star., 1924-05-19
IN TODAY'S SPOTLIGHT
BY PAUL y. COLLINS

Sun Yat-sen is not dead, but liveth,
Adherents Of the Peking government
of North China had heard with relief,
last week, that the leader of the
Canton government South China, had
died. They said: There is no other
Sun Yat-sen; the opposition will COL
lapse"
But Sun Yat-sen had merely gone
away for rest: he is back at the
helm, refreshed and vigorous-the
George Washington of a freed and
democratic China-freed from the
foreigner, yet torn by military oil
garchy and plunderbund.
* +
Asia has produced three great
leaders in this generation: Ghandi,
who seeks to deliver India, and KEN
al Pasha, the builder of the New Tur-
key-and Sun Yat-sen. Neither of
the others is SO outstanding in self
achievement, in personal peril and
selfforgetfulness and personal loss
as the one who delivered half a mil
lion people from the tyranny of the
Manchu conQuerors, and then. for
the sake of unity, put aside the pres
idency after he had been elected and
inaugurated, rather than permit di
vision in his liberated country.
Denounced as an agitator, dema
gogue and traitor-even as We're
Sam Adams, Ben Franklin, Patrick
Henry and John Hancock-Sun Vat
sen has kept his head-literally as
well as fguratively.
In 1894 he helped to form in Canton
a secret society of eighteen patriots,
pledged to deliver China from the
Manchus.
we can conceive the audacity and
peril Of that compact? For 800 years
the Manchus had ruled through the
connivance of millions of office-seek-
ing Cinnamon and millions of spies.
To utter a word of criticism of the
Manchu government, even within
ones most intimate circle, meant that
the treason" was reported, and be-
heading quickly followed
Seventeen members OF that secret
society were promptly beheaded, but
Sun Yat-sen escaped. Later. he was
captured as he walked the streets or
London, held as a prisoner IN the
Chinese legation .GS96), where, 1t was
British government interfered and
released him.
Secretly he worked on, chiefly
amongst his countrymen abroad In,
cluding some ten years in the United
States. He was next heard of when,
In 1872 he led an army against the
Manchu emperor, and was himself
elected the first president of Re
public of China Eighteen years OF
struggle and at last victory!
& + =
But there was too great a prize in
the presidency, and a rival rose. in
the person of Yuan Shi-kai, unwill-
ing to abide by the election of Sun
Yat-sen. Rather than permit divi-
sion in the country for which he had
already sacrificed so much Sun Yat-
sen resigned the presidency and ap-
pealed to his followers to elect Yuan
Shi-kai
Yuan Shi-kai began his adminis-
tration under the constitution at
Peking, and the next year he borrow
ed 25, ,000 900 pounds sterling from
the so-called six-power group of
bank it against the OBJ
jections Of the National Council
warning of President woodrow Will
son to American bankers against
participating in the loan without the
approval of the National Council.
Then, with the money in his pos
session, Yuan Shi-kai dismissed the
National Council. against the provi-
sion of the constitutions: Article Xxx
The National Council shall itself con-
woke. conduct and adjourn its own
meetings" ~.~
The National Council Immediately
reconvened in Canton. where the
former President Sun Yat-sen organ
ized an army to defend the constitu-
ton. The legal National Council, by
an almost unanimous vote, again
elected Sun Yat-sen president of the
Chinese Republic, while at Peking
Yuan Shi-kai proclaimed himself en-
peror. This resulted in a general
rally Of the south against the usurp-
er of the north and a year later
Yuan Shi-kai renounced his own act
and returned to his claim of the pres
idency (1s16), but he died few
months later, and the Vice President