893.00P.R./24
The Minister in China ( MacMurray ) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 25.]
Sir: In accordance with the Department’s instruction No. 78, of October 9, 1925,52 I have the honor to submit the following summary, with index, of events and conditions in China during August, 1929:
Second Disbandment Conference
The following account of the Second National Reorganization and Disbandment Conference is taken from a report by the Assistant Military Attaché of the Legation:
“With the bald statements of Chiang Kai-shek that ‘troops may be compared with water, which may float or sink the ship of state, that ‘an army not under control is like fire which destroys lives and property’, and that ‘to persist in keeping a big army is tantamount to digging our own graves’, the second Disbandment Conference opened in Nanking on August 1st and closed on August 6th. It was convened in fact to carry out the provisions which were promulgated by the first Disbandment Conference, which opened in Nanking on January 1st of this year.
“In the former conference it was decided to reduce the armies (Manchuria was not included) of China to sixty-five divisions of 11,000 men each, or to a total of 715,000 men, and about fifty million dollars was appropriated to bring this reduction into effect. At that time it was announced that China’s swollen armies numbered approximately 1,500,000 men.
“Now, seven months later, there are at least 2,225,000 men in China’s armies, and the fifty millions are all gone. Little wonder that some of us get pessimistic over China’s future! The fifty million [Page 172] was spent in part against the Wuhan Party, but the expenditure of the remnant remains a military scandal which is not spoken of outside military circles. Each soldier who was disbanded, and there really were many disbanded and many also recruited, was, according to the provisions of the first conference, to receive three months’ pay. In many cases they received no pay and only in a very few organizations as much as two months’ pay. Commanders of various armies were ordered, and at the conference agreed, to disband certain whole units. The order was in many cases disregarded and in some carried out, but new units were organized to make the total the same or even greater. Little wonder that T. V. Soong says, ‘It is not impossible to raise enough funds for disbandment, but the difficulty lies in possible misappropriation of the funds by the various commanders when they get the money’.
“It is not thought that the second Disbandment Conference … will be so ineffectual as the first, since Nanking’s authority is more widely recognized now. Neither is it thought that China’s army will be reduced to the limit announced,—that of 800,000 men.
“Though this mass of men is spoken of above as ‘China’s Army’, really it is no such thing. In the first place it is no army at all, since only in rare instances does it warrant being called more than a military mob, and neither is it China’s. It is loyal not to China, but each group to its own commander. What this commander orders, in case it is paid and fed, this group will probably execute. But the various groups do not submit to the overlordship of the National Government except as by so doing they are furthering their own ends, or as they are driven by fear. As Charlemagne was able to unite the robber barons during his reign, so they are occasionally united in China, and as the army disintegrated after Charlemagne’s demise, so breakdowns often occur here.
“That is why disbandment is so difficult here in China—that and the economic condition of the country. If there was an occupation open to every disbanded soldier, soldiers would look forward to disbandment, but in the army they at least are fed and that is no mean consideration in China.”
Conditions in Yunnan
The following account of conditions in Yunnan during June and July is taken from a report of August 7th by the Vice Consul in charge at Yunnanfu which reached the Legation at the end of the month:
“The civil war involving Yunnan and Kweichow provinces spread throughout eastern, northern, central and western Yunnan during the period under review overshadowing all other events in the district. As a result of these operations the policy of aggrandizement of the Yunnan provincial authorities with regard to Kweichow has signally failed. The authority of the Yunnan provincial government is again restricted to this province. Military factions opposed to the existing regime have taken advantage of the embarrassment of the Yumian authorities to push the civil war to the gates of Yunnanfu and to occupy large sections of the province.
[Page 173]“Incident to military operations, a disastrous powder explosion in Yunnanfu destroyed a considerable portion of the city, causing much loss of life and heavy damage to property.
“The political situation in the district is less stable than at any time during the past year and a half. It appears improbable that the situation will be materially improved in the near future. Under the foregoing circumstances economic conditions in Yunnan have of course failed to register any improvement. The unsecured paper currency remains most unstable. Continued efforts of the provincial officials to secure external financial assistance have been unsuccessful”.
Rendition of the Belgian Concession in Tientsin
An agreement was signed on August 31st between Belgium and China for the rendition of the Belgian Concession in Tientsin,53 to come into force on mutual notification of ratification. Thereafter the former Belgian Concession is to be administered under Chinese laws and regulations although the land tax is to be maintained until the promulgation by the National Government of the “new general law governing land taxation.”
Within a month of the coming into force of the Agreement title deeds and certificates of private property are to be handed over to the Chinese authorities concerned who are to issue in exchange certificates of perpetual lease. The debts of the Municipality of the former Concession, amounting to some 90,000 Tientsin Taels, are to be reimbursed by the Chinese Government to the Belgian Government within six months from the day of the coming into force of the Agreement.
I have [etc.]