File No. 893.00/2534
Minister Reinsch to the Secretary of State
Peking, September 5, 1916.
Sir: Supplementing previous reports on the general political situation in China, and referring particularly to the Legation’s despatch No. 1143 of July 14 last, I have the honor to enclose, for the information of the Department, copies of the following Consular reports on the conditions prevailing in the various provinces.2
For the rest, the enclosed reports present a fair indication of the confused sets of conditions prevailing in the neighborhood of Nanking, of Hankow, of Changsha, of Chungking and of Canton. These several confused situations are notable in the degree to which they are local—involving matters primarily provincial and only secondarily related to the affairs of the Central Government or of other provinces. For the most part, the matters here reported (and other questions of current interest, such as the Shanghai opium scandal, in which certain members of Parliament from Yunnan were detected in the attempt to smuggle in large quantities of opium under cover of the courtesies of the port, and under circumstances which cast some suspicion upon the newly appointed Minister of Justice); the sporadic rioting at Hankow; the scrambling for provincial offices in Szechuan; the somewhat similar interplay of local influences in Hunan,—all these incidents, though they are alike in that they involve an element of disregard for the authority of the Central Government, create an impression of utter incoherence, lack of coordination of any sort, and heterogeneity of local interests.
The one set of events which bears a national, no less than a provincial character is that centering about Canton, where Lung Chi-kuang, holding the office of military governor and acting as civil governor, under the authority of the Peking Government, pending [Page 95] the arrival of successors in each capacity, has been besieged by forces acting under the authority of the military council of the recently seceding provinces, although that council had long ago given notice of its adherence to the Government under President Li Yuan-hung, and declared the purpose of its existence at an end. This extraordinary situation (which seems to have become possible only by reason of the detestation which General Lung has aroused during his tenure as governor of Kuangtung) has been the most obvious, if not actually the most serious obstacle to the assertion of the due authority and control over the provinces by the Peking Government as newly constituted under President Li. It is to be hoped that the taking over of the office of civil governor by Chu Ching-lan (lately governor of Heilungkiang) on August 25, and the assumption by General Lu Yung-ting, within the past few days, of command over the troops hitherto acting against General Lung, indicate a settlement by which full control over the civil and military affairs of the province will again be exercised, without opposition, by appointees of the Peking Government.
I have [etc.]
- Not printed.↩