Page:Chang Tso-lin's struggle against the communist menace.pdf/12

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vi INTRODUCTION

up and rivalry of the original groups is distract- ing the region which they have invaded and from which they have driven foreigners by their system of intimidation; and with the disillusion- ment which has come people are again inclined to believe that China needs not ideologues but a strong hand.

These writings trace rapidly the conditions during the summer in that portion of North- China—principally Shantung, Chihli and the Manchurian borderland—which is committed to a death-struggle with the Kuomintang Party because its principles are odious to frank men. Chang Tso-lin’s public assumption of the title of dictator in Peking on June 18 opened a new period in this struggle. To eradicate the Kuo- mintang influence will not prove easy; to crush it throughout the country may take years. There will be certainly long periods of truce alternating with short periods of war, and if present indications have value the real arbiter will come in the end from abroad. A united front on the part of those Powers widely interested in pre- serving Chinese trade may still seem a distant consummation; but there are reasons for sup- posing that the pressure of events will force trading nations to abandon the quiescence they have exhibited in the face of the subversive

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