世界日報
- Notice from the Joint Army Corps Headquarters
- Notice from the Zhengyan Evening News
- Urgent Notice from the Beijing–Hankou Railway Administration
This Beijing page is dominated by a notice from the Fengtian joint army command of Zhang Xueliang and Han Linchun. It says order in the capital is returning, promises to move the troops quartered in the city elsewhere, and invites residents harmed by undisciplined soldiers to file complaints naming the unit, while guaranteeing informants secrecy and warning against false charges. A new evening paper, the Zhengyan Evening News, announces its launch on October 17, claims a sheet twice the size of its Beijing rivals, lists prices, and offers generous fees for news and short pieces. The Beijing–Hankou Railway replaces its Beijing–Shijiazhuang express trains with ordinary mixed passenger-and-freight trains, citing the need to reallocate rolling stock. Fragments of telephone-bureau and printing advertisements fill out the excerpts.
This edition covers three excerpts from part of the page. The OCR text was heavily garbled and served only as a cross-check. Part of the military notice's heading near 第…四方面 is obscured, and the text taken from that column runs on into the opening of the Zhengyan Evening News notice. Illegible spots are marked [?]. The telephone-bureau and World Printing Bureau advertisements survive only as fragments, and the dense small type of the 佩文韻府 advertisement was not transcribed. The medicine advertisements along the right edge are too dark and smeared to read.
Translation
Notice from the Joint Army Corps Headquarters
9th day of the 9th month, bingyin year. Notice of the Headquarters of the Zhenwei Third and Fourth Front Joint Army Corps.
Whereas the stationing of this army within the city [?] was from the start a temporary expedient, and we are well aware that soldiers and civilians alike have found it inconvenient: now that order in the capital is gradually being restored and public security is no longer in doubt, we shall select suitable sites and move elsewhere forthwith. We fear, however, that our inspections may not have been thorough, and it is hard to rule out that unruly soldiers may disregard law and discipline and harass the neighbourhoods. Anyone who has suffered harm should, in accordance with this headquarters' two previous notices, write down in detail his or her name and address and the unit and names of the officers or men who caused the trouble, and promptly lodge a complaint stating the facts, or submit a letter of complaint to the competent authority. Once the matter is verified, the offenders will certainly be severely punished according to law. No one, however, may bring false accusations out of a grudge. If informants fear trouble for themselves afterwards, this headquarters will keep their names strictly secret and will never make them public. We therefore once again earnestly proclaim this, so that all merchants and people may be informed. This notice.
Republic of China, 15th year, 10th month, [day]. Army Corps Commanders Zhang Xueliang, Han Linchun
Zhengyan Evening News: Notice of Scheduled Publication and Call for Contributions. This paper will begin publication on October 17, issuing one large sheet daily, twice the size of any evening paper now published in Beijing; its news is prompt…
Notice from the Zhengyan Evening News
Friday
Zhengyan Evening News: Notice of Scheduled Publication and Call for Contributions
This paper will begin publication on October 17. It will issue one large sheet daily, twice the size of any evening paper now published in Beijing, with well-informed news and abundant material. Single copies cost six copper coins; a month's subscription costs 45 cents in silver dollars, and a full year 4 dollars 50 cents in silver dollars. This paper strives for excellence. Besides engaging dedicated staff to handle news gathering and writing of every kind, it will spare no expense in paying generously for important news of all kinds, social news and short sketches. Those kind enough to send contributions are asked to mail them directly to this office on Shanxi Street outside Xuanwu Gate. Contributions selected for publication will be rewarded generously; those not suitable will not be returned, for which we ask your pardon. This notice.
Urgent Notice from the Beijing–Hankou Railway Administration
Notice: In order to adjust the allocation of rolling stock and facilitate transport, this railway will, as of today, suspend special express trains Nos. 7 and 8 running between Beijing and Shijiazhuang, and will instead make up two ordinary passenger trains, Nos. 21 and 22, with freight cars attached, running daily between Beijing and Shijiazhuang to carry passengers and freight. This public notice is hereby issued so that all may be informed. This notice. Republic of China, 15th year, 9th month, 11th day.
Beijing Telephone Bureau advertis[?]: Our South Office is extremely short of telephone numbers, while applications [?] … in order to clear arrears and meet the needs of new subscribers, [we] have successively withdrawn the South [?] of those who did not pay, more than two hundred subscribers in all, each number [?] or so. Anyone within the South Office district who needs a telephone installed and is willing [?] please come to the engineering section of our South Office at Liulichang to make arrangements. [?]
World Printing Bureau undertakes printing of Republic year 16 [?] … This bureau has specially prepared paper plates in all kinds of styles ○ for you to choose from as you wish
Context
Zhang Xueliang and Han Linchun, the two commanders behind the troop notice
The notice is signed by two army corps commanders, Zhang Xueliang and Han Linchun, speaking for a joint headquarters of the third and fourth front armies. The pairing has a documented origin. After Guo Songling's mutiny within the Fengtian camp was suppressed, Han was appointed to command the 4th Front Army and formed a joint command with Zhang Xueliang and his 3rd Front Army. The two men brought different strengths. Han had made his name as superintendent of the Mukden Arsenal, where he helped modernize the Fengtian Army after its defeat in the First Zhili–Fengtian War. Zhang Xueliang was the son of the Fengtian leader Zhang Zuolin. Under Han's command, their forces defeated the Guominjun in August 1926. When this notice appeared about two months later, it came from a field command that had only just finished a major campaign and whose troops were still quartered in Beijing.
Why the command promised to move out and punish soldiers' misconduct
The notice calls the quartering of troops inside the city a temporary expedient, asserts that order in the capital is gradually being restored, and promises to relocate. At the same time it asks victims of unruly soldiers to name the offenders' units, refers to two earlier notices on the same subject, and pledges secrecy for informants. That pledge makes sense against the events of the preceding months. At the close of the Anti-Fengtian War, Zhang Xueliang's army occupied the capital, with Wu Peifu's troops arriving a little later; together they sacked the city, causing much chaos and the collapse of much of the Beiyang government's bureaucracy. Discipline problems also appeared in the field: during the fighting against the Guominjun, the Fengtian commander Wu Junsheng's army pillaged the surrounding area, and Han and Zhang removed Wu and the officers involved. The claim that order had returned is the headquarters' own assessment. The Fengtian military presence in the capital did not end with this notice. In November 1926 the Fengtian clique formed the National Pacification Army after its victory, and that command's main difference from its Manchurian predecessor was that it was based in Beijing rather than Mukden.
The wars along the Beijing–Hankou line when the express trains were cut
The railway administration's notice, dated September 11, 1926, replaces the Beijing–Shijiazhuang express trains with slower mixed trains and gives only the reallocation of rolling stock as its reason; it says nothing about military traffic. Its timing, however, falls in a period of war at both ends of the region the line's name spans. Early in the Northern Expedition, most of Wu Peifu's forces were tied down fighting the Guominjun at Nankou Pass near Beijing. After the Nationalist advance into Hubei, Wu and most of his army fled north into Henan, while his remaining troops in walled Wuchang held out for over a month until the city fell on October 10. In October 1926 National Revolutionary Army troops entered the British concession at Hankou, the city named in the railway's own title. A year later the line's Beijing–Shijiazhuang section itself became a front: in late August 1927 Zhang Zuolin's forces attacked Yan Xishan's soldiers at Shijiazhuang and forced them back into Shanxi. The notice shows how the war years squeezed ordinary passenger service, though it does not itself state a military cause.
A rival evening paper advertising in the World Daily
The Zhengyan Evening News chose to announce itself in the World Daily, a paper with its own stake in Beijing's evening market. The World Daily's founder, Cheng Shewo, moved to Beijing in 1917 and graduated from Peking University in 1921; afterwards he founded the World Evening News, the World Daily and World Illustrated. The newcomer's boast of a sheet twice the size of every evening paper then published in Beijing therefore included the World Daily's own sister paper. The advertisement also shows the terms on which such papers competed: a single copy at six copper coins, a monthly subscription at 45 cents in silver, salaried reporters, and paid contributions of important news, social news and short sketches from outside writers. Read on its own, the notice suggests that a new evening paper in autumn 1926 sought readers and writers through page size, price and contributor fees.
Original
聯合軍團司令部佈告
丙寅年九月初九日鎮威第三四方面聯合軍團司令部佈告照得本軍駐守城 [?] 原屬一時權宜之計深知軍民均感不便目下京師秩序逐漸恢復治安無虞自當採擇相當地點即行遷移他處惟誠恐查察未周難免有不逞軍人罔遵法紀擾害閭閻倘有被害之人應遵照本部前兩次佈告計明詳細姓名住址及肇事官兵隊屬姓名即時據情或具函投轄控告一經查實定即依法嚴懲但亦不得挾嫌誣控告發人姓名如恐事後受累本部當為嚴守秘密決不宣佈用再剴切曉諭凡我商民人等其各週知此佈中華民國十五年十月日軍團長張學良韓麟春正言晚報定期出版徵求稿件啟事本報定期十月十七日出版日出一大張較比北京現有各晚報加大一倍消息靈
正言晚報啟事
星期五正言晚報定期出版徵求稿件啟事本報定期十月十七日出版日出一大張較比北京現有各晚報加大一倍消息靈通材料豐富零售每份銅元六枚每月大洋四角五分全年大洋四元五角本報力求精美除聘定專員擔任新聞探訪及各種文字外並不吝重酬徵求各種重要消息社會新聞及短篇小品文字倘荷惠稿希逕寄宣外山西街本社如經選載酬贈從豐不合恕不檢還此啟
京漢鐵路管理局緊要廣告
啓者本路現因調濟車輛便利運輸起見自即日起將往來北京石家庄之第七八兩次特別快車停止開行另組第二十一及二十二兩次尋常客車附掛貨車逐日往來北京石家庄間載運客貨合亟佈告俾衆週知此佈中華民國十五年九月十一日北京電話局廣 [?] 敝南局電話號額異常缺乏而掛號請 [?] 清理積欠供給新用戶需要起見將南 [?] 不繳者陸續撤回計有二百餘戶每號 [?] 左右凡在南局界內需裝電話情愿照 [?] 到琉璃廠敝南局工程課接洽辦理幸 [?] 世界印刷局承印民國十六年日 [?] 本局特備各種欵式紙版 ○ 任憑諸君選