W HAT has become of the Chinese Nationalist movement since the establishment of Manchukuo? In I927-28, under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek, the Nationalists were marching triumphantly from success to success. With the seizure of Peking in the summer of I928, it was hoped that the old military regime, inherited from the days of Yuan Shih-kai, was doomed. With the setting up of the new capital at Nanking, equally dramatic victories followed in the international field. The policy of revolutionary diplomacy adopted by the Nationalist Government was making rapid progress towards elimination of the special privileges enjoyed by foreigners, under the so-called unequal treaties, since I843. Even in far-off Mukden the seemingly irresistible strength of the movement had made itself felt. By the beginning of I929, Chang Hsiieh-liang had raised the nationalist flag in the four Manchurian provinces. United to an extent not before exceeded under the republic, China appeared to be on the point of taking its proper place as a sovereign nation. Then came the Mukden incident of September I8, I93I, speedily followed by virtual occupation of the whole of Manchuria by Japanese armies. The culmination of this development came last March in the enthronment of P'u Yi as emperor of the new state of Manchukuo. Nationalist China had lost a more populous and richer portion of the old Empire than had any previous regime. Have the Chinese knuckled under to Japanese domination? Will they presently be forced into recognition of Manchukuo? Have they passively accepted the political facade erected by Japanese bayonets? What were the causes of the failure of the Nationalist movement, which could not maintain the semblance of national unity in face of a foreign foe? These are some of the questions exercising the
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Dec 1, 1938
Louise Phelps Kellogg + 1
