Evening star., 1927-03-08
ARTICLE iii.
BY UPTON CLOSE.

Experts in the Far Eastern section
OF the American War Department are
agreed that the entire armed forces of
the western powers which could be
made available at Shanghai within a
| month would be unable to defeat a
determined onslaught by the Nation.
allst army, to say nothing of the
forces of Marshal Chang Tso.lin, who
has offered to send his huge northern.
ers to the scene if the powers land any
more troops
When | was on the staff of Gen.
WI Pei-fu four years ago, he instruct.
ed US: Carefully avoid any clash with
foreign troops. 1t will be a good while
before our men can stand up to them"
Last Fall a commander in the North
ern armies and an officer in the Can
toneSe forces both assured me their
soldiers no longer feared white troops.
You have seen the paper tiger that
Is carried in a Chinese funeral pa
rade." said one. "It looks very fero.
cious until gust of wind rips it open.
My men call foreign forces the paper
tiger"
Await Chance for Proof.
While not aggressively challenging,
officers and men today await with
confidence, and almost desire. the OPP
portunity to demonstrate that a
Chinaman is as good as white man
on the field. No longer do they go
out armed with umbrellas instead of
rifles, call off the war in cold weather
and decide the victory by poker games
between commanders. The change be-
gan after the army of Sun Chuan-
fang, now holding Shanghai. in 1924
almost annihilated a white Russian
division employed by Marshal Chang
TSo-lin of Mukden
In the old days the Chinese soldier
was an outcast and acted like one.
Then when the Japanese tried to alb
sorb Shantung, Chinese students be-
came militant and Joined the army of
WI Pei-fu. Western propaganda Of
soldier worship during the World War
had large share in breaking down
the old Confucian attitude toward
fighting.
Finally came the creation Of the
Nationalist force, a Chinese army
trained to fight for a cause rather
than for q man. The founding of the
Whampoa Cadet School near Canton
was DIR. Sun Yat-sen's last accom-
'plishment. 1t was stated with 60 Rus
sian military trainers lent by the So
wet. 1t became an honor to be a
Whampoa cadet. They are nominated
from all over China by the county
committees of the Nationalist party.
A professional soldiery made up of
picked young brains succeeded the Job.
less outcastS who were so often ban
dts.
Cadets Well Trained.
The term of training is year and
half, a class of 900 being turned out
every six months. Cadets also are
given thorough training in party
principles and the Nationalist creed
and must pass stiff examination in
the art Of propagandizing before re-
ceiving commissions.
The armies of WI Pei-fu and Chang
Tso-lin are still of the old type, but
an intense hatred of foreign aggres-
sion Is building up a new morale even
among them. A large factor in this
change is the abandonment of the old
attitude of the Chinese public toward
the soldier as he takes the role of lib.
orator from foreign dominance.
Until year ago the Chinese army
was trained according to antiQuated
goose-step methods brought in by way
OF Japan. Red Russians brought in
modern ways. My observation is that
in machine-gun fighting, trench war.
fare and infantry deployment Chinese
armies are today as modern as almost
any in the world. They appear to
be still far behind in the science of
artillery. This, however, is not so
important, since heavy artillery can.
not be used in the rice country Of
central and south China.
OF course, China is far from armed
In modern sense. Chang Tso-lin's s