Feng Steps Out

With the city of Canton temporarily safe from capture by the rebel armies of Kwangsi (TIME, May 27), the Nationalist Government turned last week to face the most serious test of its three years of life.

For more than a year a most doubtful ally of the Nationalist Government has been the so-called "Christian General," Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang, holder of Peiping, Lord of the Chinese central government, owner of an enormous well-equipped private army.

Early reports that Canton had been captured by the southern rebels appar-ently convinced the "Christian General" that the time had come to step out for himself. He set soldiers to work tearing Up bridges and railroads, concentrated his private army of 150,000 in Honan province, made a statement charging President Chiang with misappropriating government funds, expressed his determination to fight the Nationalist Government.

Two days later Marshal Feng was dismayed to learn that Canton had not been captured. President Chiang was sending two armies, each as large as the entire U. S. regular army, moving north and northwest against him. The Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) had met and expelled Marshal Feng for life.

War, however, was not yet openly declared. Each side ruefully realized that they were undertaking a good deal more than they cared about. It has long been understood in Nanking that if the Nationalist Government is to survive it must sooner or later exert its authority over Marshal Feng, but they devoutly wished that the Kwangsi rebellion was over before trying to do this. Marshal Feng also realized that the Kwangsi rebellion was not occupying quite so many Nationalist troops as he had expected, that Chiang had over 250,000 troops to oppose his 150,000, that Chiang was making every effort to ally himself with the western Mohammedan war lords, Feng's oldest and most effective enemies.

Brigadier General Smedley Darlington Butler, the hard-bitten U. S. Marine who lately returned from commanding a China patrol force, last week declared to the Wayne, Pa., Chamber of Commerce:

"There will be no stable government in China for a hundred years. By that time the money will all be gone and the bandits who make up the armies will have nothing left to fight for."