Shantung's War

Shantung's War

So thundering big is China that a single one of her 18 provinces sufficed to stage the biggest war being fought in the world last week, a major conflict on an 80-mi. bottle front.

China's war was staged in China's best known province, Shantung, once dominated by Germans (1897-1914), later by Japanese (1914-22) but always the everlasting pediment of Confucius' "Sacred Mountain," Taishan. What made Shantung's war authentic and hair-raising last week was the fact-that China's two best & boldest younger War Lords were pitching into each other with such fury that they were actually paying their troops. In China, where thousands of unpaid soldiers wander around with oilpaper umbrellas (their only tents), stealing handfuls of rice and waiting for their officers to be bribed, such energy as the two armies displayed by fighting each other in earnest is as rare as a Chinese epicure's 200-year-old egg. The two battling War Lords:

Han. Appointed Governor of Shantung Province in September 1930, lithe, redoubtable War Lord Han Fu-chu has slashed through the snarl of official extortion which had made Shantung the worst governed province in China. Today Shantung is called China's best-governed province. Han stands for no nonsense. In his capital, Tsinan (see map), there is snap, discipline, morale. When the War Lord stalks with swift strides about his headquarters, ceaselessly puffing cigarets and ripping out orders in short-chopped Chinese, things get done.

There is, however, the usual Chinese paradox. Shantung is a maritime province and Han is a model governor but he has never held Shantung's vital seaports, Tsingtao and Chefoo.

Liu. In June 1929, 15 months before Han became Governor of Shantung. Chefoo was taken by War Lord Liu Chen-nien, who should later have considered himself subordinate to Governor Han of Shantung, Chefoo being merely a Shantung port.

All last summer War Lord Liu was popular with U. S. bluejackets whose ships lay anchored off his port. At the cry (in Chinese) of "The fleet's in!'', smart Liu extorted $100,000 mex. from Chefoo establishments most apt to be patronized by sailors. Pocketing perhaps half this money, Liu nevertheless spent at least $50.000 mex. to improve Chefoo's police force, to push his superb street paving program and to encourage his new Institute of Silk Culture. Liu, frankly a bandit who worked up into the roles of petty statesman and local philanthropist, had only one real fault during the summer. He did withhold (steal) all of Chefoo's local revenues from Governor Han of Shantung.

War. Standing for no nonsense. War Lord Han took the field last week with 40,000 picked soldiers to collect the arrears of revenue from Chefoo's Liu who mustered perhaps 30,000 troops, by no means picked.

First by train and next by forced marches up Shantung's best motor road, War Lord Han rushed Chefooward, then spread out his forces in an 80-mi. offensive front, aiming to envelop and crush Liu's troops among the mountains of Chefoo.

There being no reporters anywhere near Shantung's suddenly created No Man's Land, correspondents hundreds of miles away in Peiping and Shanghai began a guessing game, guessed unanimously that Han would worst Liu. While the battle raged what was the attitude of Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek? Did he back up Governor Han and order Subordinate Liu to submit? By no means.

In China every War Lord is jealous of every other, and the Generalissimo is no exception. His reaction was to telegraph rebukes to both Han and Liu, ordering them to stop fighting, but supporting the rights of neither. Ineffectual Chiang's telegrams were ignored. But after 72 hours of the hottest fighting into which two Chinese armies have pitched for years, they did stop. There had been the usual Chinese deal, probably put over with the usual bribes.

Deal. Chefoo, which has benefited so much from War Lord Liu's comparatively enlightened rule, learned that he has "consented to be transferred to some other Chinese province." The disputed revenues go to Governor Han of Shantung, but he does not get Chefoo. It passes into the hands of the so-called North Chinese Navy which has held Tsingtao for some time and belongs to Marshal Chang Jr., son of the late, great Manchurian War Lord Chang Tso-lin.

Governor Han. apparently satisfied, withdrew with his forces to Tsinan and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek could pretend that the "balance of power" in China had been maintained--by a deal. What next? Han, having much expanded his prestige by ousting Liu, may be expected to conspire with his honored guest in Shantung, the famed "Christian War Lord" Feng Yu-hsiang. onetime master of "The Largest Private Army in the World" (TIME, Sept. 29, 1930).

Feng has been spending the summer in poor health near the "Sacred Mountain," meditating an alliance with model Governor Han of Shantung and model Governor Yen Hsi-shan of Shansi Province. Should those three able heads really get together, Generalissimo Chiang, Marshal Chang Jr. and the so-called Chinese Government at Nanking may expect to be wiped from the map while ancient glory is restored to PEKING.*

* Meaning "Northern Capital" whereas it is now called Peiping, meaning "Northern Peace.''

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