Evening star., 1927-03-08
RISE OF A NEW CHINA
Chinese No Longer Afraid to Fight White Men.
Some Eager to Challenge the West.

army has been we'll equipped by Japar
with war material, including poison
gas and hand -grenades. He has
good stock Of American war stun
left by Gen. Graves at VladivostoE
and sold him by the Japanese com
mandant, who, upon our protest. was
punished" by foreign trip and
promotion. WI Pei-fu's forces have
received meager supplies from BrGish
sources. Russia has been able to re
equip the army Of Feng Yu-hsiang
the Christian general" in the north
west. and to send some help to the
] Nationalists at Canton: but. contrary
| to general belief, only few ship
loads. There is also, despite the agree
ment of the powers to keep war ma
terial out Of China, a large Illicit
trade. Italy is a fragrant violator
| There are even airplanes, OF which
| Chang Tso-lin has Is or 20 and the
Cantonese half dozen. the latter
with the advantage OF several Amer
| ican-trained flyers.
But China is progressing rapidly
| in making herself Independent OF out
| side help in arms. Two great ar
senals are in operation and are being
enlarged The one beside Hankow,
at Hanyang, run in connection with
China's greatest steel works. was
| taken from Wu Pei-fu by the Can
| tonese, and is turning out rifles and
ammunition day and night under Rus
sian and German experts. The other
at Mukden, is superintended by a
giant one-armed English exofficer
| one Of the protectors of the trench
grenade for the British army.
Put Up Valiant Fight.
The Chinese soldier has never been
afraid to die, although his sense OF
humor and compromise has always
tended to turn a war into a talk-fest.
With strong control and a cause to
tight for, he has, however. recently
shown ability to endure appalling
slaughter, as in the campaign between
the Christian general and Chang Tso'
lin, or the capture Of Swatow by the
Nationalists last Summer.
In the siege of Wuchang, one
of Wu Pei-fu's divisions. cut off by
their fellows transfer Of allegiance
to the Nationalists. fortified them.
the city, and held out for six weeks
against hopeless odds until not
enough remained to bury their dead.
The average pay of the soldier,
when he is paid, is only So a month
in China, from which he usually feeds
himself, except while in action.
Thanks to the ability Of Finance Min
lister T. V. Soong, the Nationalists'
young Alexander Hamilton, the orig
inal Cantonese forces are regularly
paid, though the armies they have
absorbed in their victorious march do
not fare so well. Sun Chuan-fang
with the rich revenues of Shanghai
district, maintains the highest-paid
army in China, while in the north
Chang Tso-lin is the only commander
who has regular pay days.
Many Men i'm Service.
While there are huge numbers of
soldiers OF various sorts in the diff
ferent regions, the number Of reliable
and well drilled troops is about 10000
in the Nationalist service and about
twice as many in the Northern fac
tions. 1t has been made plain re-
Gently that these armies would unite
against the foreigners IL necessary.
OF course, the great powers have
their fleets. But DR.. Hu Shih, Cor
nell and Columbia graduate and ac-
knowledged intellectual leader of the
New China, put it to me this way:
"Warships are useless to fight q self
contained nation. They can shoot
only as far as they can see And
If they should attempt to prevent our
taking over Of the foreign areas they
will do more damage to the proper
ties Of their own people than to us. -
Copyright. 1927