Evening star., 1937-01-17
BY GEORGE E. SOKOLSKY,
Author of "Tinder BOX of Asia"

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BY GEORGE E. SOKOLSKY,
Author Of "Tinder Box Of Asia"
n YINGPO is really fishing town
nj surrounded by a farming pop
VI ulation. But when we talk of
L Ningpo We really mean the
congeries of small villages in which
the wealthier families live in small.
whitewashed houses. but most families
have only thatched-roofed mud huts
In such a village, Fenghua, Chang
Kai-shek was born so years ago. His
family were farmers and possessed
perhaps the means for a decent living,
but his father died early and a wild
owed mother with two boys had very
little to offer either of them. She
managed to send Chang to the village
school, however, where he displayed
neither mental brilliance nor physical
strength.
Ningpo is often regarded as the
Scotland Of China, because so many
of its inhabitants leave the region to
work elsewhere. And wherever they
go. they become shrewd business men
and bankers. The rich compradore
class of Shanghai-the Chinese busi-
ness men who make money for for
eigners and very much more for them
selves-come mostly from Ningpo.
That's how the expression "Ningpo
more far" arose-it means that a
compradore or a shroff has disap-
peared with the firms funds.
Ningpo also has produced many revo-
lutionists-as many as Canton. and
much more effective ones. The Ming
po revolutionists belonged to secret
societies which sought the return of
the Ming Dynasty and which man
aged to keep Manchu China. particu-
larly during the end of that dynasty,
in considerable turmoil.
Green Society a Factor.
The Green Society-a formidable
hidden hand of secret gangsterdom-
was such a patriotic organization, and
although it has always been denied for
Chang Kai-Shek that he was men,
Der of it. most of his Ningpo friends
and colleagues were and are, and he
probably was before he became a
great man. At any rate, this hidden
force nodded his mind and his career
So Chang decided upon the career
of soldier-which really meant, in
Ningpo. revolutionist-andh he went
to Japan to study military science.
1t must be remembered that after
the Russo-Japanese war, Japan was
the hero of Asia, because Japan was
the first Asiatic country to defeat
a European country. Even Sun Vat
sen was pro-Japanese, and he made
Japan his headquarters for time.
And a young Chinese in japan would
thus come under the influence of
Sun Yat-sen and at the same time
of Toyama, the head of the Black
Dragon Society-a curiously power
full japanese who sought to unite
China and Japan against the Euro
peans on a Confucian ethical basis.
Poverty Stricken as Boy.
Chang Kai-shek was now deep in
revolutionary activity, although he
was still boy, and still very poor.
How poor he was, he described him
self.
For a period of II years-that Is.
from the time lost my father at the
age of 9 till I was Is years old-my
mother never spent a day free Of
domestic difficulties"
When the revolution of 1911 came
to China, Chang Kai-shek joined
his fellow Ningpo men, In the battles
about Shanghai. He was given COM
mand of the 5th Regiment of the
Shanghai Revolutionary Army, which
did considerable mopping up of re-
dictionaries and gained bit of repu-
tation.
As a consequence, in the revolution
of 1913 Chang was more important
And when that failed, he settled in
Shanghai as a secretary of Sun Yat-
sen, with whom he often travelled on
secret missions.
Being Sun Yat-sen's secretary was
no guarantee that one could eat, for
sometimes DR.. Sun had money and at
other times he was desperately i'm
poverished At such times Chang
Kai-shek worked for a fellow Ningpo
man as clerk in a brokerage house
although that employment did not in
volve much actual work. It was more
a Chinese way Of keeping him in rice
while he devoted himself to revolu-
ton.
Travelled With DR.. Sun.
Chiang's career lapsed from 1918
to 1928 or thereabouts, except that he
travelled throughout South China and
even Indo- China with DR.. Sun mend
ing revolutionary fences 1t was
period of deep spiritual depression
and waste in China. Young men COM
mitted themselves to the bitterness Of
defeatism and profligacy.
The Russian revolution, however,
had this effect upon young Chinese:
It made them ask why the Chinese
could not do what the Russians had
done. Chang was deeply moved by
the Russian revolution, and when, in
1923, DR.. Sun offered to send him to
Soviet Russia to study the organiza-
ton Of the Red army and particularly
the Red army schools. Chang seized
the opportunity. This fixed his career.
For when DR.. Sun entered upon an
agreement with Soviet Russia for joint
revolutionary activity in China,
Chang was the logical man to head
up the Whampoa Academy. the Red
army school outside Of Canton. And
that gave Chang an influence over
young revolutionary officers which, in
a situation still psychologically feudal,
meant personal loyalty. Lots of men
are utterly loyal to Chang Kai-shek.
Such men have done well in recent
years.
After Sun Yat-sen's death in 1925
his followers quarreled over the sue
cession to greatness and the City Of
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