Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-06-12
DR.. Wu's Resignation.

rev foreign ENJOYS acCreO1CSu W
| Washington ever came here with the
background enjcyed by DR.. Chao-Chu
WI, the Chinese Minister who has just
rendered lis resignation and withdrawn
as the Marking governments repre-
sentative in the United States. Son Of
| WI Ting Fang, China's most famous
spokesman In this country, and himself
product of the American public school
system, Dr. WI lived to become one of
his distinguished fathers successors at
Washington and himself to earn an
enviable diplomatic reputation at this
Capital. Called upon to serve Nation
alist China in the most critical hours
of it's budding career, DR.. WI acquitted
himself with dignity and effectiveness
that commanded universal respect
among those with whom official duty
brought him into contact.
The circumstances which accompany
the Minister'S retirement are extraordi-
nary, but of a character which casts no
glimmer of discredit upon the manner
of his going. DR.. WI is Cantonese.
Canton has once again flared up as
the head and center of revolution
against the central government at
Marking, itself the child of a revolu-
ton born and fomented in Canton and
the South. President Chang Kai-shek.
accused of ineficiency and a would-be
dictatorship, finds himself faced by
political enemies and military rivals in
all directions. Another civil war is
just over the horizon, If not actually
already in progress.
WHAT DR.. WI calls "the last straw"
which broke the back Of his loyalty to
Marking is directly connected with the
imminence of strife in China. He had
been ordered by the Chang Kai-shek
government to apply to the United
States for permission to purchase arms
and ammunition here. "As am a
Cantonese" he says, "any one can
appreciate my feelings not to- want to
do anything to facilitate an army for
such warfare" The "straws" preceding
"the last" one, DR.. WI permits to be
inferred, were his accommodating dissatis-
faction and discomfort with both
domestic and foreign policies Of the
Marking government. Holding them to
be inimical to the best interests Of
China as a whole, DR.. WI has left the
ship on which he could no longer serve
with required conscientiousness.
Republican China will soon be twenty
years old. 1t has weathered innumer-
able vicissitudes, but the new China"
still lives. Internecine warfare, ban
ditry, famine, economic depression, in
ternational complications and sea of
other troubles have internationally
threatened to wreck the bark which
Sun Vat Sen launched. Two definite
attempts to restore monarchial govern
ment were baffied-the imperial designs
of Yuan Shi Kai and the later effort
to re-establish the throne of the Man
chus at Mukden. The form of China S
government, that of a republic, emerged
as well intrenched. Then ensued a
IOIlS COIlLcSb 1Ok IAlC AACu1Cdb1OII VI
equally firmly founded principles. These,
too, have taken deep, If not yet in
eradicable, root
Now, apparently, the contest is over
the personnel, rather than over the
form or the principles, of Chinese gov
eminent. Chang Kai-shek's admins
tration has been steadily crumbling in
disfavor. The detection of Sun F'o,
the son of revered Sun Vat Sen,
until recently his minister Of railways,
was one Of the most serious signs Of
the governments tottering fortunes.
DR.. WI has now thrown in his lot with
the Tang Shao-yi government of South
China at Canton. That he will eventu-
ate as one of China's leaders, in the
event that history repeats itself and
South again subdues North, Is a fairly
certain probability.
Whatever betides him and his strife
racked people, DR.. WI leaves behind
him in the United States host Of
friends, whose hopes for the welfare Of
China will abide.