The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 13, 1926, Page 12

This is the first of a series of letters received from Canton and written by eur correspondent Sinbad. CANTON, CHINA, Dear Contrades: NCE again I come into your midst, Sinbad has come to Canton and is here to stay for some time. I will try ¢o get these letters to you as often as possible and I am sure they will prove interegting not only to those Who are themselves in a posi- tion to understand the struggles of the 400,000,000 of oppressed Chinese but also to those who read thes: lines in order to think up destructive criticism. In this letter I will endeavor to dc pict the background of the extremel) interesting situation existant in Ca: ton. Ever since the first unequal treat. was forced on China, Canton has ha to suffer from the attacks and th continual encroachments of imperia ism. One-sided diplomacy plus me of-war and marines have kept Cant« always on the verge of a fear of sw: lowing, mastication, and digestion - Canton by imperialism, Britis French, American, etc. Ever since the revolution in 19 China and Canton especially, ha had to suffer both from foreign im} rialism and the class of petty milit. ists and corrupt officials which cai into existence after this outbreak. Time and again Canton has been ha: assed and overrun by these, but tim: and again they have been repulsed The history of Canton since 1911 i: lengthy and time and space do not a! low a detailed account. Let it suffice to say that the struggle between thc revolutionary forces and the forces of open counter-revolution or forces ‘ot counter-revolution under the banner of revolution has been a lengthy an sanguinary one. ° During the last few months, after the death of Dr. Sun Yat-sen several generals and officials, men high in the government and who had been high in the estimation of Dr. Sun, began to show counter-revolutionary tendencies. Chen Chiung-ming who had once been a co-worker of Dr. Sun, but who had become an open counter- revolutionary and a despicable tool of British imperialism was preparing an- other onslaught on the Canton gov- ernment and when the government had sent.troops to the East River to defeat Chen Chiung-ming, Yunnanese mercenaries under the leadership of Yang Shi-min and Liu Chen-wen, were left to guard the city. Swatow had been captured by the revolutionary forces and the whole EaSt River dis- trict was restored to peace again. Then news came to the Eastern ex- peditionary forces at Swatow that their base, the heart of Revolution- ary Kwangtung, Canton, was threat- ened with destruction by Shi-min and ‘Liv’ Chen-wen who had by this time received orders from Hongkong to re- bel and make Canton safe for the very real dragon of imperialism. The story of the heroic march thru roadless country 78 kilometers, which was accomplished in 28 hours, and how the counter-revolutionists were surrounded with a steel chain of the revolutionary troops, has been sung and resung ever since June of this year when the event occurred. The strike of Hongkong and Can- ton workers directed against British imperialism in general and Hongkong in particular, had by this time begun to become stronger and daily was be- coming more stronger. Kwangtung had the chance to express its hatred of the imperialists and responded nobly to the demands of the strikers. Never before bas a strike in China been effective. Never before has an imperialist colony been so entirely helpless in face of the mighty pro- test of 150,000 organized laborers, & protest against the ruthless and un- called for murder of innocent students and workers on the streets of Shang- hai and on the docks of Hankow and ‘ The Only Way Out? In California prisons today are between seventy-five and one hundred members of the I. W. Ww. In San Quen- tin and Folsom prisons are Thomas J. Mooney and Warren K. Billings, Mathew A. Schmidt, J. B. McNamara, Her- man Suhr, and in Alcatraz prison is Paul Crouch. All of these fighters for the working class, convicted by the capitalist courts for their activity in behalf of the labor movement, are rotting away, year by year. The cartoonist, Fanning, shows a black hearse at the-door of the California prison, and asks: “Is this the only way out?” The labor movement must answer: “No!” The labor movement must rally to the support of the International Labor Defense to get labor’s prisoners out. The imperialists perceiving that there were no signs of the settle- ment of the strike decided to strike at the revolutionary government thru terrorism. ‘They concocted a diabolt- cal plot to assassinate the leaders of the revolution and with the aid of apparent revolutionists and counter- revolutionists in hiding in Canton, the first step of this fiendish plot was car- ried out. On the morning of August 20, Liao Chung-kai, the commissar of finance and the staunchest warrior of the revolution and its principles political commissar of Whampao military school, commissar of labor of Kuomintang, was shot dead in front of the Kuomintang headquarters. One of his assassins was shot by a soldier but did not die immediately and in the interval between his sheoting and death he confessed the dastardly plot. Those who were responsible for tho crime sat back in their comfortable chairs and rubbed their fat, blood- stained hands entirely unconscious of the fate that awaited them. They were men who had once been fight- ers of the revolution. They sat back in their chairs, shedding crocodile tears; and at the same time were thinking of the British shekels lying stacked up in their cagh boxes. They were generals who had been support- ers of the nationalist government, who had been executing orders of the revolutionary military council who had now connived at the killing of Tiao Chung-kai, Little did they one. All during the night firing was heard and in the morning the work’ had been done. The troops under those generals who had prostituted themselves to imperialism’s gluitin- ous desire, who had connivéd at tho death of Liao Chung-kai were dis- armed. The generals had either been arrested or were being hunted down like dogs. The soft-tongued political concu- bines of imperialist tools, who had put their names to the death warrant which had been executed on the morn- ing of August 20, were arrested. They knew righteous vengeance would be wreaked on them and in their knowl- edge they were right. Peace onco more in Canton, but the blood of Liao Chung-kai still moist. A month passed by and the revo- lutionary cloud of Kwangtung was again darkened by a threatening scor- pion. But the legs of this scorpion were cut off by the revolutionary troops and helpless, he was sent away from Kwangtung, glad to have gotten away with his life intact, Peace again reigned in Canton and the strike was becoming stronger and was gaining more and more sympa- thizers. Hongkong again tried to de- government to be purg- ed of a greater part of its evils, again dream of the fate that awaited them,|M™ilitary force, incemdiarism dbut On the night of August 25, the gov-| feated. ernment had its plans ready and/ond Hastern expedition was launched struck, The blow was a smashing|to once for all tear out the roots of in attempt she was crushingly de- LLL LLLLLBLLLLLL LLL ON CC CE, Hongkong domination in Eastern Kwangtung, Chen Chiung-ming’s uni formed banditry. In Eastern Kwangtung there is a fortress which has never, since the Sung Dynasty, been taken by mill- tary force. It is a natural and tradi- tional impregnable stronghold but the revolutionary forces showed their su- periority, not so much in equipment, fighting tools, but their superiority in moral courage, and in their knowledge that in fighting for the revolution they were invincible, and scaled the walls of Waichow taking the city. Their victorfes were gradual but steady and at last the columns of blue, the revolutionary forces, enter- ed Swatow, and the East River dis- g . 2 will have its effect om the future ley of the K pueriaade Here in the south there is promise of peace for a long time now and re | ; OSI ARANETA ILE? NON SRDS F A NINN By be eter “A LETTER FROM CANTON, CHINA .