The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 12, 1927, Page 9

In the Wake of the News HINA still occupies the center of the world stage. All the imperialist powers stress their friendship for the nationalist. movement but con- tinue to send warships and troops to Shanghai and indicate a decided preference for a victory for the militarist brigands who have been peddling Chinese territory to the foreigners for decades and perse- cuting and plundering the Chinese masses. The newspapers have not yet arisen to the heights of Yancy lying they bedeviled us with during the world war. But they are on their way, and if the pow- ers start hostilities on Chinese soil we might as well be prepared for a deluge of falsehoods pic- turing the Cantonese as hordes of bloodthirsty sav- ages hungry for white victims. * * * So far the pages of the capitalist press are oper ,to a few faint squeaks from those who favor the Cantonese. All those who know the facts of the situation in China, privately admit that the Can- tonese are bound to win. Even missionaries whose business it is to keep the masses supplied with fables, agree that the day of the militarists is gone by and that China, like Turkey, will cut the gordian knot of unequal treaties with the sword. The al- leged victories won by the Sun Chuan Fangs and other reactionary generals are disproven between editions. The capitalist papers are ready to write a lurid headline flashing a Cantonese defeat on the slightest provocation, but whenever they fail to give you the approximate number of dead, wounded and captured you are justified in being a bit skep- tical. + * * As the situation stands at the time of writing, the Cantonese are advancing on Shanghai. Between them and their objective are the forces of Sun Chuan Fang, an ally of Chang-Tso-Lin. In al! probability the imperialists are supplying Sun with arms and money. But the militarists lack the mass support which the Cantonese have won as a result of their progressive appeal to the workers and thru knowledge of the fact that wherever they have succeeded in driving out the militarists they have immediately legalized the trade unions and peas- ants organizations. _In the territories under the control of Chang-Tso-Lin and his allies the unions are outlawed. eae * The Cantonese have approximately two-thirds of China under their control, The main struggle is . now taking place in the rich Yangtse valley, the industrial heart and the commercial centre of the country. Chang-Tso-Lin threatens to come down from the north with his mercenaries to aid his har- rassed ally Sun Chuan Fang, but General Feng is waiting on the side lines with a disciplined force of 50,000 men ready to make chop suey out of Chang’s army if they get too far from home. Wu- Fei-Fu who was quite a big gun in Chinese affairs a few years ago, and the favorite tool of Great Britain, has spurned the attentions of Chang who would let bygones be bygones provided Wu got busy. and started in to work. Wu vows that he would just as soon be robbed by anybody else as by ‘Chang, who he trusts only a little. more than he trusts the Cantonese. . * * * Chang is nothing if not vitriolic. When he learned that Wu‘could not be wooed by sweet words he seized the weapon of sarcasm and proceeded to jab it into Wu’s emotional ribs. He charged Wu with loafing on the job for several months while his friends were being roasted on the Can- tonese spit. Wu was an ineffective, incompetent, played-out general, he said. Naturally this did not make Wu any more inclined to betake himself to a shady nook and pen sonnets to Chang’s eyebrows. Indeed, he gave Chang to understand that any Man- churian soldiers that trotted over Wu territory would be liable to make it their last resting place. This is very good. Let us hope those two brigands will get real crazy and fight it out with bare . knuckles until both win. * * * The Peking government has nothing left but a few ministers and a letterhead. The ministers are still allowed to be at large in the various capitals. Indeed, there is reason to believe that most of them are secretly in favor of the Nationalist @overnment. A Peking dispatch stated that the political element in that government favored the Cantonese but what ean a government without soldiers do? Chang-Tso- Lin has the soldiers and tho he has no more legal right to determine the policy of the government than I have, swords are mightier than proclama- tions yet, and Chang has the swords. Still the Pek- ing government has a few kicks left in it and with one of the last of these is ejected the British cus- toms agent for refusing to perform his duty or accept instructions from the Peking government. The newspapers informed us that foreign ministers representing other imperialist powers including the United States protested against the Briton’s dis- missal, hut later on we are informed in an official communication. from Washington that Minister MacMurray did not protest, It is almost impos- sible even for expert debunkers of the news that appears in the capitalist press to separate the false from the true. am cs * Britain has not yet succeeded in securing what they call a concert of the powers against China, tho she has made a most inharmonious noise try- ing to make the world believe that she had. It is true that the United States has dispatched war- ships and troops and has given Admiral Williams carte blanche to do as he pleases in the crisis, never- theless Washington is not blind to the possibility that her finance barons, concessionaires and traders may be able to get something out of the Chinese pot at Great Britain’s expense. * * * The British government’s policy shows that there is a conflict in the cabinet between the extreme con- servatives represented by Churchill, Birkenhead and Joynson Hicks and the moderate tories led by Chamberlain and Baldwin. The main difference be- tween the two factions is, that the former would use Mussolini tactics while the latter preféf¥ more subtle methods. Churchill seemed to think the Chinese could be frightened by a display of force. Chamberlain knew that force had the opposite ef- fect. Churchill is aiming at the premiership and he is hunting around for an issue to ride into power on. Cablegrams from Moscow indicated a strong belief in that quarter that the British government would use the Chinese situation to break off rela- tions with the Soviet Union. This would be more possible than a year ago in the opinion of the tories because of the flopping over to the right of the so- called left leaders of the British Trade Union Con- gress. * * * In the preliminary debate on the Chinese situa- tion, J. H. Thomas defended the government openly President Green of A. F. of L. leading war on Communism. Puzzle: Find Green in this picture. and brazenly. Ramsay MacDonald’s speech was objectively a defense. He agreed with Chamber- lain that the marines were going to China for po- lice duty but feared that somebody would, pull a trigger and start trouble. Stanley Baldwif in re- ply regretted that he could not send the London Metropolitan police instead. Even the liberal fa- ker Lloyd George was more vigorous in his criti- cism of the government than MacDonald. Judging from the news dispatches at hand as these words are being written, the left wing of the Parliamen- tary Labor Party, such as it is, took the leader- ship of the opposition on this question out of the hands of MacDonald, and demanded that the Can- tonese demands be granted by the government. This was of ‘course refused. British warships are still ploughing the seas to China and a bloody war, that may develop into a world conflagration, is in the offing. * * — The British government rewarded the right wing leaders for their treachery to the miners in calling off the General Strike, by introducing a bill out- lawing the general strike or any kind of a strike that the government may feel like branding politi- cal. While the right wing leaders may pretend to oppose this, they have no intention of doing so, as the existence of such a law will enable them to stop all demands for a general strike in the future with the reply that it is unconstitutional. However, a little thing like a law is a weak defense against the By T. J. O FLAHERTY demand for something when it is backed up by the collective might of millions of organized workers, * * ¥ ENITO MUSSOLINI has blossomed forth as the champion press agent of the world. If he has time to do anything else besides grant interviews to American newspapermen and debutantes, where the time comes from is a miracle. Benito wanted to get into the Chinese scrimmage, for a price, of course. One of his organs declared that force is the only argument a Chinaman understands, unless money is available. The fascist sheet wants to know why the Cantonese have not been already cut to pieces if all the corruption money is used up. Perhaps the editor knows whereof he speaks. Italy sold herself to England in the early days of the world war and she has been peddling herself ever since to the highest bidder. Italy, under fascism, has become the most outstanding political prosti- tute among bankrupt nations. The Italian workers will need a huge pile of gas masks when cleaning up time arrives, . * *” * HE dispute between the United States govern- ment and Mexico is marking time. Talk of com- promise is in the air. The Mexican government reports that the clerical* revolts have been com- pletely crushed. It is evident that the Calles ad- ministration feels strong enough to use the steam roller on the catholic church but it is doubtful if he is as willing to organize the workers and peas- ants for resistance to the oil, mining and land magnates. Most of the foreign concerns having oil, land and mining concessions in Mexico regis- tered under the new decrees and evaded trouble. The big American oil companies held out. So far Calles has succeeded in staving off a decisive show- down with the United States thru the courts, which granted injunctions to the oil companies staying the government's threat of enforcing the confisca- tory decrees. What will be the immediate out- come, time only can tell. » * * N Nicaragua Admiral Latimer. Wall Street en- voy, continues to follow in the wake of the liberal armies, declaring neutral territory every piece of land they chase the Diaz forces out of. Kellogg has notified Sacasa, the constitutional president, that he will never be recognized. In view of this attitude it is rather amusing to read that the state department is opposed to intimating that it would look with favor on Diaz’s resignation lest such ac- tion might be construed as interference in the in- ternal affairs of Nicaragua. Now, who said that “Nervous Nell” Kellogg is not clever? * * * HETHER you feel relieved or not because the United States is as good as out of the world court, it is so, The senate reservations were not accepted in full by England and Borah, Reed, John- son, Moses and other anti-courters are in great glee. Coolidge is mum as usual. The defeat of several pro-court senators in the last congressional elections cured him of his enthusiasm for the court. Having failed as usual to carry anything he pro- poses to victory, “Cal” made another bid for fame by launching another fake disarmament: conference. A good time to pull it off, we admit, while the United States and England and all the other im- perialist powers to a lesser extent, are crushing the weaker nations with naval and military force. Coolidge proposes a conference in Geneva with a view to reducing naval appropriations. His recent defeat by the big-navy crowd impelled him and his backers to try this tack. . * * * London correspondents report that England does . not object to seeing submarine construction paired down to a’minimum because that is where France is strong, but England does not like the idea of reducing the number of light cruisers on her list since she claims her trade routes are the longest in the world and need protection. This is another farce ard nothing will come of it except more hot airy This is the. usual jockeying that continually takes place between the powers in the intervals of peace. There cannot be any hope of turning swords into pruning hooks as long as capitalism exists, * * * HALI Coolidge run for another term? William Randolph Hearst, democrat, and Henry Ford, nothing in particular, think he should. Nicholas M. Butler, chief ballyhoo man of Columbia university thinks he should not. In fact “Nick” declares more or less emphatically that “Cal” will not run. Per- haps, and perhaps not. One thing is certain: The imperialists will run two candidates, on both old party tickets and both will be equally willing to serve big business here and abroad. The workers and farmers must organize their own party, a La- hor Party, and stop wasting their time guessing what particular capitalist puppet succeeds in get- ting into the White House for four more years.