Will you be good enough to forward it to your Minister at Peking with the
request that the same be communicated to your Government?
[Enclosure]
Manifesto Issued by Dr. Sum, Yat-sen, June 29,
1923
The Chinese people have suffered long and heavily under the burden of
militarism which has brought in its train civil war, disunion, and
anarchy. The recent deplorable bandit outrage on one of the trunk
railways, though startling to the outside world, is, to the
long-suffering Chinese people, but another incident of innumerable
similar happenings in places little known, another count in their
indictment against their oppressors. When it is pointed out that
within a radius of one hundred miles of Lincheng, adjoin the
territories of five provinces under the military jurisdiction of the
most prominent and powerful Militarists of the North whose soldiery
number officially [Page 512] half a
million, it will be realised what the extent of the evil and the
futility of militarism is. When the events transpiring in Peking
during the last twelve months, to take a no longer period, are
recollected, during which time a so-called president has been pushed
into office and dragged out of it, and a bewildering number of
premiers and cabinets have been set up and pulled down, all solely
at the pleasure of the Militarists to gain their own ambitions, it
will be realised what the extent of the unruliness and the
fickleness of the Militarists is. The Chinese people have in no
uncertain voice time and again repudiated the claim of such men to
be their rulers and have longed for the blessings of peace and unity
in the land.
Conscious of the sentiment of the country and convinced that the
urgent needs of China are the disbandment of superfluous soldiery
and the establishment of a united and efficient government, I last
year suggested a meeting of the principal political and military
parties in conference having for its agenda the disbandment of
troops throughout the country by general agreement and the
subsequent employment of the men in productive works of public
utility, the establishment of a central government which should
receive the support of all the provinces and perform the functions
and discharge the duties of an enlightened, progressive, and
democratic government, the agreement on a constructive programme for
the Central Government and the provinces, and the settlement of
those political questions on which the future peace and good
government of the country and the smooth relations between the
Central and Provincial Governments depend. Such a Disarmament
Conference was little to the liking of the Militarists as it would
deprive them of the tools on which they depended for the realisation
of their unholy ambitions and was like “asking the tiger for his
skin.” While they dared not openly oppose the proposal, they were
evasive in regard to the question of disarmament which was really
the crux of the whole matter. At the same time they sent expeditions
and subsidised traitors to make war on the provinces of Kwangtung,
Szechuen and Fukien and thus by their action defied the entire
Chinese people.
They have been enabled to do this through their possession of the
historic seat of the Central Government which gave them the
recognition of the Foreign Powers. But the Peking Government is not
in fact or in law a government, does not perform the primary
functions or fulfil the elementary obligations of a government, and
is not recognised by the Chinese people as a government. The Foreign
Powers, who must all along have realised the farce of their
recognition, have been prompted to do so by the notion that they
must have some entity, though it be a nonentity, with which to deal.
However, by their action, they have given Peking moral prestige and
financial [Page 513] support in the
shape of revenues under foreign control so that the Peking
Government has been enabled to exist by virtue of foreign
recognition and by that alone. Unconsciously perhaps, they have thus
done something which they have professed they would not do, that is,
intervened in China’s internal affairs by practically imposing on
the country a government repudiated by it. They have by supporting a
government which cannot exist for a single day without such support,
hindered China from establishing an effective and stable government
which the Washington Conference agreed “to provide the fullest and
most unembarrassed opportunity to China to develop and maintain for
herself.” They have by prolonging civil war, disorder, and
disorganisation, injured the interests of their own nationals whose
trade and business with China have naturally suffered loss and
inconvenience. Even technically the recognition of Peking has been
of no convenience to the Legations as owing to the fact that
Peking’s writ does not run in the provinces, they have often to deal
direct with the Provincial authorities, and the absence of a
recognised Central Government is no real inconvenience when it is
recalled that such was the case for a period of twenty months
between the fall of the Manchu Government and the recognition of the
Republic. On the other hand, it is absolutely certain that
non-recognition of the Peking Government, involving as it does the
loss of prestige and important sources of revenues, will compel the
Militarists to agree to disbandment and unification.
The lack of even the form of government and the struggle for empty
titles in Peking at the present juncture constitute a particularly
opportune moment for the Foreign Powers to withhold their
recognition from Peking until a government is established which can,
fairly claim to be representative of the country and command the
respect and support of the provinces. The Chinese nation awaits from
the Powers this démarche which is demanded by
every consideration of justice to China, the principle of
non-intervention, solemn international compact, and the interests of
the Foreign Powers themselves.
