Office of the Historian

893.00/7097: Telegram

The Minister in China (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State

Peking, February 18, 1926—7 p.m.
[Received February 18—2:19 p.m.]

81. My number 549, December 28, 8 p.m.2

1.
I am reliably informed that Premier Hsu has hurriedly abandoned office, has submitted his resignation, which has been refused according to Chinese practice, and has been granted leave of absence; and that the probabilities are he will not resume his functions. His whereabouts is unknown. Is being variously reported from credible sources that he has taken refuge in the Legation Quarter and has gone for a rest to Tongshan hot springs.
2.
I am also reliably informed that immediate cause of Hsu’s disappearance was fear of action which General Lu Chung-lin, commander in chief of the Metropolitan Garrison, and the Minister of War had threatened to take against him because of his failure to supply these respective militarists with the sums they demanded. In the case of Lu the Ministry of Finance was able to give him only eighty thousand dollars instead of million which had been promised to him. I am inclined to believe this information since it appears that the Kuominchun3 are attempting to secure funds from any and every source to finance them in their defence in the campaign against them upon which Wu Pei-fu,4 Chang Tso-lin,5 Chang Tsung-chang in Shantung, and Li Ching-lin south of Tientsin, with probable pro-Wu adherence in Shensi are believed to be embarking.
3.
The First Kuominchun based on Kalgan, formerly commanded by Feng Yu-hsiang and possibly still under his actual leadership [Page 592] to whom General Lu Chung-lin is attached, must bear the brunt of any such campaign since it is the best organized and most efficient of the four so-called Kuominchun.
4.
While advices are meager concerning Wu’s movements against Honan and the flank movements in the same direction by his Shantung and Shensi adherents, there are many indications that a Chihli-Fengtien alliance has been brought about for the purpose of crushing Kuominchun in general and Feng in particular, that is to say, the radical militarist element in North China. Sun Ch’uan-f ang’s6 position vis-à-vis this alliance, which is of the first importance, seems undetermined although it would not appear likely that Wu would have started his campaign without satisfactorily assuring himself at least of Sun’s neutrality.
5.
A factor which may or may not have been accidental that is greatly to Wu’s advantage is the death of General Hsiao Yao-nan, Tupan of Hupeh, who was reported several days ago to have died from heart failure. While nominally one of Wu Pei-fu’s principal partisans, Hsiao has been notoriously uncertain in his allegiance and has caused Wu much anxiety. Wu has appointed one of his chief and most trusted lieutenants, General Chen Chia-mo, Military Governor of Hupeh and another of his adherents, General Tu Hsi-chun, Civil Governor of the Province. Thus far no official confirmation of these appointments has been mandated by the Chief Executive.
6.
While a vigorous campaign by the allies, if such a relationship has been established, would not seem likely until weather conditions more favorable in the spring, yet Kuominchun forces are not united and their general collapse without a strenuous fight is possible. In such an event even the phantom government now existing at Peking may collapse unless Wu and Chang decide to retain Tuan7 as a figurehead. In any event the tenure of the present Cabinet precarious.
MacMurray
  1. Ibid., p. 627.↩
  2. Nationalist armies which had been under the control of Marshal Feng Yuhsiang, whose resignation was accepted Jan. 9, 1926.↩
  3. Former commander of Chihli troops who had been defeated in the civil war of 1924.↩
  4. General in control of Manchuria.↩
  5. Military overlord of the Provinces of Kiangsu, Kiangsi, Chekiang, Fukien, and Anhwei.↩
  6. Tuan Chi-jui, Provisional Chief Executive of the Chinese Republic.↩