893.00P.R./20
The Minister in China (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 2.]
Sir: In accordance with the Department’s instruction No. 78, of October 9, 1925,43 I have the honor to submit the following summary, with index, of events and conditions in China during May, 1929.
The month was darkened by the apparent prospect of an extensive renewal of civil war, that “continuate and inexorable malady” of the young Republic. The central authorities and/or their nominal agents had successfully coped with certain of the lesser militarists, such as the Kwangsi leaders at Hankow and in Kwangtung, and General Chang Tsung-ch’ang in eastern Shantung, but the virtual elimination of these insurgent elements seemed merely to bring into clearer perspective the most important issue of the current year—the fundamental antagonism between General Chiang Kai-shek and Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang, which was officially proclaimed during May. For the seemingly impending struggle between these two military leaders, General Chiang was in the advantageous position of “President” of the Republic while Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang derived moral strength from his role of champion of the Left Wing and of the common people.
In a circular telegram of May 20th addressed to “the Ministers of the various Powers at Peking and the Consuls General of the various Powers at Shanghai”, Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang made, in part, the following startling observations: [Page 161]
“Since Chiang Kai-shek has violated the regulations of the Party and has monopolized the Third National Congress of the Kuomintang Delegates, the Nanking Government in accordance with the principles of the Party already has become an illegal Government and is no longer able to represent the nation as a whole. At the present moment a punitive military campaign against Chiang has already started throughout China. I am appointed the Commander-in-Chief of the Northwestern Route of the Army for the Protection of the Party and the relief of the Nation. Chiang will immediately be defeated and his power will cease to exist.”
This challenge was countered by the Nanking Government with a resolution, of May 23rd, by the Standing Committee of the Central Executive Committee, dismissing Feng Yu-hsiang from all offices and from the Party for life, and authorizing the issuance of a mandate launching a punitive expedition against him.
A number of other pronouncements were made and messages exchanged between the two camps, largely for propaganda purposes. Military operations were not carried out on any significant scale during May, and as a possible alternative thereto it was rumored that Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang, who on May 27th had announced his retirement from public life, was preparing to go abroad in the company of General Yen Hsi-shan for an indefinite time. The rumor was not confirmed during the month, nor was the authenticity established of a report that General Han Fu-chu, one of Feng’s principal associates, with several other of Feng’s generals, controlling together some 100,000 men, had transferred their allegiance to the Central Government.
The total number of men under arms in China, not including irregulars, was estimated by the Military Attaché of the Legation, in a report dated June 5th, to be 1,852,100, disposed, in part, as follows:
| First Group of Armies, under Chiang Kai-shek | 564,600 | men |
| Second Group of Armies, under Feng Yu-hsiang | 293,000 | men |
| Third Group of Armies, under Yen Yu-hsiang | 153,000 | men |
| Miscellaneous Units nominally under the control of the National Government | 325,500 | men |
| Miscellaneous Units opposed to the National Government | 130,000 | men |
| Northeastern Frontier Defense Forces, under Chang Hsüeh-liang, not including the 31st Army (Jehol troops) | 329,500 | men |
Among the more important occurrences of a pacific nature, during May, were the preparations made for the formal interment of the body of Dr. Sun Yat-sen in the mausoleum built for that purpose on the slope of Purple Mountain in Nanking. The time of the interment, originally scheduled to take place on March 12th, had been advanced to June 1st, principally because the avenue from the water-front to [Page 162] the tomb had not been completed. The historic event took place on the latter date without disturbing incident although uncertainty in the relations between General Chiang Kai-shek and Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang continued, almost until the end of May, to furnish ground for the supposition that it would again have to be postponed. The ceremonies in Peking consisting in the main of public addresses by a group of propagandists who had come up from the South, culminated on May 26th in an orderly and dignified procession which accompanied the remains from Pi Yun Ssu, in the Western Hills, to the special train at the Chien Men Station, destined to bear them to Pukow. There the casket was taken across the Yangtze River to Nanking in a warship during a salute of 101 guns. On May 27th the heads of the Diplomatic Missions in Peking, in the capacity of Special Envoys of their respective Governments, left on another special train, as the guests of the Chinese Government, to attend the ceremonies in Nanking. The period from May 26th to June 1st was observed as a time of mourning.
The Situation in Canton and Vicinity
The following account of the Kwangtung-Kwangsi conflict is based on a report by the Consul General at Canton on political conditions in his district during the month. The impending hostilities between the Canton provincial government and the Kwangsi clique broke out on May 4th when a Kwangsi military expedition started down the West River to attack Canton. The city was in imminent danger of capture on two occasions, but the Kwangsi forces were finally defeated and when the month closed the Cantonese army and navy were nearing Wuchow, which had been evacuated by the Kwangsi commanders. Admiral Chan Chat, commander-in-chief of the Cantonese navy, entered Wuchow harbor on June 2nd.
An outstanding feature of the conflict was the effectiveness of the Cantonese airplanes. The Kwangsi leaders seemed to have underrated the military value of airplanes, or perhaps they relied unduly on the widespread sympathy in Canton for the Kwangsi cause. When the Cantonese fleet revolted on May 9th, the city was practically surrounded by hostile forces. Kwangsi troops had arrived in the vicinity of Samshui and the soldiers of Hsu Ching-t’ang, a Kwangtung general who had thrown in his lot with Kwangsi, were advancing from Swatow by way of Waichow and the Canton-Kowloon Railway. The Cantonese authorities seemed paralyzed and it was generally expected that the city would be captured within forty-eight hours. At this point, however, the airplanes, coming to the rescue, bombed the insubordinate units of the fleet and forced them to surrender. Admiral Chan Chat resumed command and transferred the more effective [Page 163] elements to the West River, where a bombardment of the Kwangsi positions was begun and the Kwangsi advance was checked.
Mr. Jenkins reported that, at the end of the month, it seemed safe to state that the Kwangsi clique had been decisively defeated and would not be able to recover unless the remnants, which then were marching into the interior of that province, received support from some unexpected source.
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Conditions in Eastern Shantung
During April the attempt of the insurgents under General Chang Tsung-ch’ang to gain control of eastern Shantung was seen to have failed. At the end of that month the Nationalist flag, hoisted by General Liu Chen-nien, again was flying in Chefoo. Chang Tsungch’ang sought refuge in Japan and, of his adherents, only General Chu Yu-pu still held out with a small force in the walled city of Fushan.
A face-saving “capture” of Fushan took place in May after an armistice arranged, in part, through the mediation of the American Consul at Chefoo. At the time of the capitulation, apparently through connivance, General Chu Yu-pu escaped to an unknown destination. Mr. Webber reported that the city was cleared of everything. Neither side respecting private property, every residence and place of business was looted. Estimates based on hospital reports and statements of Chinese army officers and others indicated that there were between 1,500 and 2,000 casualties from the fighting around Fushan. After the restoration of peace there, friction developed between Generals Liu Chen-nien and Jen Ying-chi, both professed supporters of the Central Government. Their dispute, arising over the question of division of authority, occasioned two days of fighting at Hwanghsien during the middle of the month.
May ended with a semblance of peace, conditions in the district, according to Mr. Webber, resembling those of October last, that is to say, a military government under General Liu Chen-nien who was virtually independent of the Nanking authorities and of the Tsinan provincial authorities.
Sino-Japanese Settlement of the Nanking and Hankow Incidents
On May 2nd the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Japanese Minister exchanged notes of that date in settlement of the Nanking incident of March 24, 192744 and the Hankow incident of April 3, 1927,45 the texts of the notes being made public on May 6th.
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[Page 164]Yunnan and Kweichow
The following account of relations between the provinces of Yunnan and Kweichow is taken from a report, by the Assistant Military Attaché of the Legation, embracing occurrences of the latter part of May:
“Acting under orders from Chiang Kai-shek, Lung Yun, the Governor of Yunnan, has invaded Kweichow and recent reports state that Kweiyang, the capital, has fallen and that the Yunnanese will cooperate with Ho Chien’s Hunnanese in the subjugation of the province. There has been bad blood between the military leaders of the two provinces for many years and a clash has been imminent for the past six months. If there is actual cooperation between Ho Chien and Lung Yun the pacification of the province will present little difficulty.”
I have [etc.]