The Struggle for Control

The Soviet Government cemented its disavowal of "imperialist" colonial policy by the conclusion of equal treaties and pacts of friendship with the Asiatic countries, as follows: The Soviet and China.—The Mongolian treaty caused irrita tion in Peking and had the effect of delaying a full accord between the Soviet and Chinese Governments until May 31, 1924. In a manifesto issued in July 1919, and formally repeated in Sept. 192o, the Soviet had affirmed in the most categorical manner its abstention from previous pacts infringing Chinese sovereignty in any way, its abandonment of all claim to the Boxer indemnity, and its willingness to treat with China on terms of full equality.

The treaty of 1924 put a Soviet ambassador, Karakhan, in the old tsarist embassy in the Legation Quarter of Peking, despite the objection of the foreign diplomatic corps to the presence of a potentially hostile element within the fortress that the Legation Quarter had become after the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. Mean while the Communist International was at work in South China, where both Russian and Chinese Communists supported the Na tionalist slogan, "China for the Chinese!" As the Nationalists advanced northwards from Canton, the influence of their Russian advisers, Borodin in political affairs and Galen in the army, grew stronger. Neither had an official connection with the Soviet Gov ernment, but the foreign Powers, especially England, were con vinced that both were acting under Moscow's orders. By March 1927 the Nationalists were masters of South China, including the Yangtse valley, and the native section of the greatest treaty port, Shanghai.

At this moment Chang-Tso-Lin, the anti-Nationalist dictator of Peking, raided the premises of the military attaché in the Soviet embassy there, with the knowledge and permission of the foreign diplomatic corps. A mass of documents were seized and a number of arrests were made, including subordinate members of the Rus sian staff and Chinese Communists who had sought refuge in the embassy compound.

The documents published immediately showed a financial con nection between the Soviet embassy in Peking and the Comintern or unofficial activities of Borodin and Galen in South China. A rupture of relations between Moscow and Peking followed. The foreign Powers, especially England, began to realize the full danger to them of the Leninist doctrine of colonial slaves. Strong military

and naval forces enabled the foreigners to retain the treaty ports and the Legation Quarter of Peking, but they were compelled to abandon their privileges at Hankow on the Middle Yangtse, which for a time became the Nationalist headquarters.

Then, in the moment of victory, Russian influence began to wane. Nationalist leaders may have been alarmed by the revela tions of the Peking embassy documents, or attracted by the ma terial advantages of friendly relations with foreign Powers. It is also conceivable that Moscow at this time overestimated the revo lutionary character of the Chinese Nationalist movement. At any rate, there occurred a split between the "Left" or Russophile section of the Nationalist Party and the "Right," which ended with the victory of the latter, the flight to Russia of Borodin, Galen and their staffs, and a harsh repression of Communism in the territory controlled by the Nationalists.

The Anglo-Soviet Rupture.

Events in China had increased anti-Soviet feeling in England, already aggravated by Russian financial contributions to the British coal-miners on strike in the previous year, and in May 1927 the premises of the Soviet Trad ing Corporation in London, Arcos, were raided by the police. In this case no seized documents were made public, but the result was similar to that in Peking. Diplomatic relations between Eng land and the Soviet were severed on May 24, 1927. This was the first serious setback the Soviet had met since 1921. It caused a reduction of English credits and imports, and thus affected the internal economic situation, which had now come to depend in no small measure upon smooth relations with foreign capital and business.

Communist Policy at Home.

Lenin's death occurred at a time when the growing prosperity of the "Nepmen" and the new bourgeoisie had begun to raise fears in the minds of many Com munists that the New Economic Policy might become a surrender to capitalism. The tremendous demonstration of popular sym pathy which accompanied his funeral ceremonies, when three quarters of a million people waited an average of five hours in the arctic cold of 3o degrees below zero, night and day alike, before passing through the hall where Lenin's body lay in state, encour aged his successors to resist the bourgeois trend.