Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-03
BY H. X. NORTON.
RAINBOW of promise has bent
fife graceful Ul0m nroIif1d tho


A RAINBOW of promise has BEN
n its graceful glow around The
"A shoulders of China. Repre-.
4 a sentativeS of all the great mill
tary chieftains have just com
pleted a solemn session at Marking II
which they have pledged themselves X
reduce their armies. The total number
of troops is to be brought down from
somewhere between 100000 and g.
600, 900 to 100000. What is more en-
eouraging, this diminished force is Il
Be placed under the sole direction o.
the civil government at Marking.
For people who for years have en-
dured civil war and soldier banditry
this is indeed a harbinger of better
days. But what of the war lords:
When they renounce war as an instru-
ment of personal policy they renounce
their power and their privileges. their
pelf and their pocketbooks. Is 1t pos
s.ble that a half-dozen or more OF
these worthless. all inspired at the same
moment by the spirit OF peace, have
come to confess their sins and begin
life anew?
Rumors of Schemes Heard.
Only the future can tell. China at
Nkesent is full of rumors. There is said
. be a vast amount of scheming and
tnAafguing going forward. Almost every
tndy has his pet combination which he
thinks is about to be formed for the
renewal of civil war and the overthrow
Of the Marking regime. Such things
have. a substance in China which they
have lost in our more highly newspa-
pered Occidental civilization. Even the
most skeptical and cool headed OF OBJ
servers finds 1t difficult to keep his feet
on the ground and take into considera-
ton only the facts that are proved. rms
d why events so frequently belle
64ophecies in China.
H would be foolish to cccept at Its
Hnoe value the assurance that the war
InrdS, are going to quit. There is too
much against it. But 1t would be
equally foolish to refuse to put any
confidence in 1t. There comes a time
tn the life Of nations when certain
Aings simply pass into the limbo OF tbs
forgOtten. It may be that the Chinese
war lords will be relegated to oblivion.
lust as we're the daimyo Of Japan.
There was a greater power-potential
O. least-before which the daimyo
Mwed and surrendered their privileges.
@nere may be the same potential power
"a China today. At least the war lords
have recognized it to the extent OF max
ing promise 10 DenaVe.
Treaties Aid Civilians.
Not the least of the factors which
have strengthened the arm of the civil
ian government at Marking has been its
success in the matter of securing new
treaties with foreign nations. Foreign
Minister Wang has concentrated his at
tention on the question of customs au-
tonomy. He has already signed treaties
with most of the powers in which
China's right to AK her own tariff
schedule is recognized. A new schedule
went into effect on February /.
Thus has ended forever the era of for
eign-controlled customs duties, which
began with the British treaty in 1843.
Ever since that time China has been
bound By treaty agreements to limit
her tariffs to 5 per cent-more recently
to 7la per cent-of the value Of I'M.
ports. The result was restriction of
customs revenue which has undoubted-
" hampered the establishment of an
effective central government. The fact
that at the same time the duties were
collected under foreign supervision has
been a constant challenge to China
sovereignty and has had no little to do
With the determination to assert her in
dependence.
The question has been agitated for
years. The British made a treaty in
1908 providing for an increase of duties
to 1917 per cent, conditioned upon the
abolition of the internal transit dues
known as 'likin." America and Japan
followed suit. But likin was not abol-
ished and the change was never made.
At the peace conference at Paris and
ut the Washington conference the