Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-12

presidents and military governors-the
small recently made great, ex-makers
of sweetmeats, ex-bandits, all of whom have
had their chance at handling the affairs of
state in China since the days OF the republic
It Is not the story they tell.
Neither is it the story of the tourist / have
read recently of that China, the experiences OF
an American womon travelling In China
graciously passed from one Chinese great per-
son to another She saw China'S old art, heard
scholars talk of its classics. She told OF
Canton. city of jade and ginger" she called
it. But that is not the Canton know. That
is the travellers China holding the cream OF
adventure; danger for sports sake. The extra
nice dessert saved for guests. Ginger Of ad-
venture served from Jade cups.
AS the wife of an American business man
who has lived in the interior of China for 19
years I do not see this country through the
eyes of her great, or the eyes of tourists. see
it through the eyes of her merchants whose
shop doors often in the last years have been
close barred fearing looting by advancing and
retreating troops; through the eyes of its lowly
common people whose junkS and sampans
have so often seen looted and Communicated
under rile fire, farmer folk whom have seen
devastated by floods, bandits and soldiers.
IN the Human Province there had been IA
= wars in Is years. How many floods,
droughts, famnes, pestilences and bandit raids,
directly and indirectly dependent upon war,
Human had experienced during that time no
one could say. No one had kept record. The
various war lords who had acted as governors
had not cared enough to keep track. All their
time had been occupied in raising money and
troops to fight their rivals. AS for the people
perhaps they cared too much. Such misery is
better forgotten. Over them constantly was
thrown backwards and forwards, the shuttle
of war; entangling them in the network of
calamitieS it wove.
~.
the fact that the disaster of last years drought
filled the city with starving victims, there was
o growing sense of confidence that Human
might at last attain to some measure of peace.
That was all the common people asked. They
could work then.
Three years before the governor had won
over his general who, enviouS OF the opium
"Squeeze" had drawn off his soldiers and at
tempted TO usurp the governors seat. Now
during these three years he had learned little
of the secret of good government II was sur
prising, every sad how he was developing.
So. in spite of the starving people going about
with their begging bowls, and the occasional
flareupS of discomfort and anti-foreign feeling
caused by the preachers of Communism, there
was little sustaining hope in the hearts of
the people and in our own.
But alas! the handmaiden of democracy in
China Is jealousy. In March second general
drew of his followers from the ranks of the
reigning governors army, and before we knew
it this Gen. Tang sat in the governors
"yamen" Uncertainty again took possession
of the city. Sympathizers of the past regime
lay in hiding fed fearing Imprisonment or
beheadng. Merchants groaned under the now
habitual forced contribution to each new
government.
But endless sometimes seems the recuperative
powers of the Chinese, and it was not long
before the city took the new governor, Gen.
Tang. to its heart BY some trick of personality
he became the peoples idol.
month and four days; then one fine April
morning and this month-old military governor
Gov. Tang. marched away 10 the South carry
ing the seals Of his ONCE with him. Human
was now caught up into the national issue. for
Gov. Tang had been flirting with the Nation