Journal de Genève
- The Chinese Armies
- Gloomy Prospects
- Letter from Spain
The Journal de Genève's front page of 28 October 1926 opened with an editorial signed W. M. that tried to make the Chinese civil war intelligible to European readers. Chinese territory, it argued, was split among five armies and five generals, but the armies held only scattered points and the generals governed little beyond requisitions, taxes and summary justice. A news piece signed R. P. set the Confederation's situation, which could be viewed with optimism despite the budget deficit, against that of the Federal Railways, which the board of directors had judged very serious, as Mr. Haab had predicted. A correspondent's letter from Spain described how censorship and rumours made reporting difficult, how hearsay and clandestine sheets had fed public curiosity especially since the artillerymen's movement, and how the public read the government's denials as confirmations.
Translation
The Chinese Armies
The situation in China would, for all its complications, be easy to understand if European minds were not resistant to monosyllabism and if our ears did not refuse to register Chinese names. The first thing to do in order to grasp what is happening in China is therefore to overcome this verbal difficulty. Secondly, one must remember that although Chinese territory is divided among five armies and administered by five generals, this occupation and this government do not have the character they would have in Europe. The armies occupy only certain points. The generals hardly administer at all. They confine themselves to making requisitions, levying taxes and sometimes dispensing summary justice.
Gloomy Prospects
While, despite the deficit the budget still shows, the situation of the Confederation can be viewed with optimism, that of the Federal Railways, on the other hand, gives rise to justified fears. The board of directors judged it very serious, thereby confirming the predictions made by Mr. Haab during the debates on the civil servants' statute.
Letter from Spain
The censorship regime to which the Spanish press is subjected and the rumours of every kind circulating about the political situation make the work of gathering news more and more difficult. Hearsay and clandestine sheets feed public curiosity, especially since the artillerymen's movement. The government finds itself obliged from time to time to deny all these rumours through semi-official notes; but popular judgment sees in these denials nothing but confirmations.
Context
Who held China's territory in 1926
W. M.'s editorial says Chinese territory was divided among five armies and five generals, but the translated passage names none of them. Historians describe a landscape that broadly fits this picture. In 1926 three major warlord coalitions were hostile to the Nationalist government in Guangzhou. Wu Peifu's forces occupied northern Hunan, Hubei and Henan. Sun Chuanfang had extended his rule over Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Anhui and Jiangxi, and at the height of his power commanded more than 200,000 men. The most powerful coalition, under Zhang Zuolin, head of the Beiyang government and the Fengtian clique, controlled Manchuria, Shandong and Zhili. Added to these were the Nationalists' own National Revolutionary Army and the Guominjun, a breakaway Zhili faction sympathetic to the Kuomintang that was fighting Wu's troops near Beijing. The map printed with the editorial labels its zones Feng, Tchang, Ou, Sun and Chang. These stand for Feng Yuxiang, whose Guominjun had joined Zhang Zuolin in taking the Zhili clique's northern provinces, Zhang Zuolin himself, Wu Peifu, Sun Chuanfang and Chiang Kai-shek. The editorial's five generals are the leaders of these forces.
The state of the Northern Expedition in October 1926
The editorial appeared at a turning point of the Northern Expedition, which had formally begun on 9 July 1926 when Chiang Kai-shek accepted command of the National Revolutionary Army. Wu Peifu's remaining troops in the walled city of Wuchang held out for over a month before it was taken on 10 October, and Nationalist forces entered the British concession at Hankou that same month. Against Sun Chuanfang the results were mixed. After early gains in Jiangxi, the Nationalist offensive was forced into retreat when Sun arrived from Nanjing with reinforcements on 21 September, and his forces crushed a rebellion in Zhejiang by 23 October, only days before this issue was printed. A front that moved back and forth in this way fits the Geneva writer's insistence that the armies held particular points rather than whole territories.
Why the Federal Railways' finances caused alarm
R. P.'s article contrasts the Confederation's budget, still in deficit but viewed with optimism, with the situation of the Federal Railways, which the board of directors had judged very serious. The paper links that verdict to predictions Mr. Haab made during the debates on the civil servants' statute, and the selected passage gives no figures. The longer history of the railways shows why their accounts were a standing concern. In the interwar period the SBB/CFF centralised its administration, cutting the number of board members by three quarters and halving the number of general directors. Despite an unstable economy and growing debt, it pushed ahead with electrification and built its own power plants. The debt was dealt with only by the federal act on the SBB of 1944, which allowed a one-time debt relief, the creation of endowment capital and restructuring measures. The 1926 warning thus came early in a long period of mounting railway debt that was settled only during the Second World War.
The artillerymen's dispute with Primo de Rivera
The correspondent assumes his readers know what the artillerymen's movement was. It grew out of a quarrel over promotions. Primo de Rivera's dictatorship introduced an open promotion system, based on merit as well as seniority, which the Artillery Corps strongly opposed. A decree of 9 June 1926 unified the promotion systems across the armed forces, and officers of the corps set themselves against it. Most of the officers involved in the failed conspiracy of June 1926 against the regime, known as the Sanjuanada, came from the Artillery Corps. In September 1926 Primo de Rivera responded by suspending all officers of the corps, and he later dissolved it entirely. The rumours and clandestine sheets the letter describes were therefore circulating a few weeks after a confrontation between the dictator and an entire branch of the army.
Official notes and press control under the dictatorship
The semi-official notes mentioned in the letter were a real instrument of the regime. After the Sanjuanada failed, Spanish newspapers published on 26 June 1926 an unofficial note from the government giving its version of what had happened. The note portrayed the plotters as a small number of people and asserted that the immense Spanish majority showed daily its love for the current regime and government. According to the correspondent, the public read denials of this kind as confirmations. Control of the press tightened further later: after the failed coup of January 1929, all newspapers in the country were compelled to devote one-sixth of their publication space to government use. The censorship the correspondent complained of in 1926 was thus part of a system the dictatorship went on to strengthen.
Original
Les armées chinoises
La situation de la Chine serait, malgré ses complications, facile à comprendre, si les esprits européens n'étaient réfractaires au monosyllabisme et si nos oreilles ne se refusaient à enregistrer les noms chinois. La première chose à faire, pour saisir ce qui se passe en Chine, consiste donc à surmonter cette difficulté verbale. En second lieu, il faut se rappeler que si le territoire chinois est divisé entre cinq armées et administré par cinq généraux, cette occupation et ce gouvernement n'ont pas le caractère qu'ils auraient en Europe. Les armées n'occupent que certains points. Les généraux n'administrent guère. Ils se bornent à faire des réquisitions, à lever des impôts et parfois à rendre une justice sommaire.
Sombres perspectives
Si, malgré le déficit qu'accuse encore le budget, on peut considérer avec optimisme la situation de la Confédération, celle des C. F. F., en revanche, suscite des craintes justifiécs. Le conseil d'administration l'a jugée très sérieuse, confirmant ainsi les prédictions faites par M. Haab au cours des débats sur le statut des fonctionnaires.
Lettre d’Espagne
Le régime de censure auquel la presse espagnole est soumise et les bruits de toute espèce qui circulent concernant la situation politique rendent de plus en plus difficile le travail d'information. Les «on dit» et les feuilles clandestines nourrissent la curiosité publique, surtout depuis le mouvement des artilleurs. Le gouvernement se voit de temps en temps obligé de démentir tous ces bruits par des notes officieuses; mais le jugement populaire ne voit dans ces démentis que des confirmations.