Crítica
- To resist the compulsory insurance law, Chile's shoe workers declared a strike
- In Great Britain it is thought that the Cantonese Nationalists will fail in their attempt to organize China
- Alex, Russian grand duke and spiritualist, believes the Soviet will fall soon
Crítica's page of 29 October 1926 carried three foreign reports. From Chile, it reported that shoe workers had gone on strike to resist the compulsory insurance law, and that parliamentary committees, reacting to the unrest, had resolved to ask the government to propose an amendment. On China, it relayed a view held in Great Britain that the Cantonese Nationalists would fail to organize the whole country but would keep and strengthen their influence in the south, leaving the problem of a China split into two powerful factions. From Paris, it quoted a Russian grand duke, described as a cousin of the former tsar and one of Europe's most enthusiastic spiritualists, predicting that Russia would overthrow the Soviet government within two years and establish a new government of peace.
Translation
To resist the compulsory insurance law, Chile's shoe workers declared a strike
Owing to the prevailing unrest, the parliamentary committees studied the matter and resolved to ask the government to propose an amendment to that law
In Great Britain it is thought that the Cantonese Nationalists will fail in their attempt to organize China
Nevertheless, it is believed that they will maintain and consoli[?]date their influence in the south, which would then present the problem of a China divided into two powerful factions
Alex, Russian grand duke and spiritualist, believes the Soviet will fall soon
PARIS 29. – Grand Duke Ale[?] of Russia, cousin of the ex-tsar and one of the most enthusiastic spiritualists in Europe, declared that Russia will overthrow the Soviet Government within two years, and that a new government of peace will be established
Context
How Chile's 1924 compulsory insurance law came about
The compulsory insurance law in the headline matches Law No. 4,054, which Chile promulgated on 8 September 1924 as compulsory sickness and invalidity insurance. The historian Daniel Ahumada Benítez describes it as the law that created the Caja del Seguro Obrero Obligatorio, and traces the drafting of a social-security policy for workers back to 1921. The National Library's Memoria Chilena notes that Arturo Alessandri Palma's candidacy had raised workers' hopes for social legislation. It also records that on 8 September 1924 army officers made a forceful show in Parliament, demanding the approval of sixteen laws, among them major labour laws, and the insurance law was promulgated that same day. Memoria Chilena dates the actual application of the new labour legislation to the period after General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo took power in 1927. The paper's report that parliamentary committees, reacting to the strike, resolved to ask the government for an amendment therefore shows a law still being contested two years after it was rushed through. The deck does not say which provisions the shoemakers objected to.
Where the Northern Expedition stood in late October 1926
The British view reported in the headline came while the Nationalists were advancing fast. Chiang Kai-shek accepted command of the National Revolutionary Army at a ceremony on 9 July 1926, which marked the formal start of the Northern Expedition, and the initial strategy for the advance was largely devised by the Soviet advisers Mikhail Borodin and Vasily Blyukher. Wu Peifu's remaining troops held the walled city of Wuchang for over a month until it was taken on 10 October, and by the end of October Sun Chuanfang's forces were again retreating across Jiangxi and Fujian. The most powerful coalition, however, led by Zhang Zuolin, head of the Beiyang government and the Fengtian clique, still controlled Manchuria, Shandong and Zhili. That map explains the expectation in the deck, a Nationalist south consolidating its influence opposite a powerful north, and therefore a China divided into two blocs.
Britain's clashes with Chinese forces in 1925–1926
Britain had direct reasons to watch the Cantonese movement warily. The largely British-run Shanghai Municipal Police opened fire on a crowd of demonstrators, and the outrage culminated in the Canton–Hong Kong strike, which began on 18 June 1925. Negotiations with the British began only on 23 September 1926, and the strike was finally called off on 10 October, less than three weeks before this issue. On the upper Yangtze, General Yang Sen, appointed governor of Sichuan by Wu Peifu as the Northern Expedition threatened, seized British river steamers; on 5 September 1926 Royal Navy vessels tried to recapture them and opened fire on Chinese troops, and the Chinese diplomat Wellington Koo told the British government that nearly 1,000 Chinese soldiers and civilians had been killed or wounded. That clash involved a northern general rather than Canton, but it shows Britain in open conflict with Chinese forces that autumn. The headline attributes its forecast only to opinion 'in Great Britain' and names no official source.
How the forecast of a divided China compared with 1927–1928
The forecast that the Nationalists would fail to organize China proved wrong in its main point. In 1927 the first phase of the Northern Expedition ended in a political split between two factions of the Kuomintang itself. In December 1928, however, Manchuria's leadership announced that it would accept the authority of the Nationalist government in Nanjing, completing the reunification the British view of 1926 had doubted. The stable north–south partition imagined in the deck did not come about, although the deck was right that Chinese unity remained fragile, since the division that followed opened inside the Nationalist camp.
Who the spiritualist grand duke was
The partly illegible 'Ale[?]' and the headline's 'Alex' point to Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, though the page does not print his full name. He was the first cousin once removed, brother-in-law and adviser of Nicholas II, so the paper's 'cousin of the ex-tsar' loosely describes a close relative. In exile he lived in Paris and wrote his memoirs, which fits the Paris dateline. He also had a long record of mystical interests: he is described as a 'mystical freemason' who called himself a Rosicrucian and Philalethes, consistent with the paper's label of an enthusiastic spiritualist. He was a figure in the American press as well in 1926, when Manuel Rosenberg drew him for the Cincinnati Post. The two-year forecast of the Soviet government's fall is reported as his own declaration; the article offers no evidence from inside Russia to support it.
Original
PARA RESISTIR A LA LEY DE SEGURO OBLIGATORIO DECLARARON LA HUELGA LOS OBREROS DEL CALZADO DE CHILE
Debido a la agitación reinante, los comités parlamentarios estudiaron el asunto, resolviendo pedir al gobierno que proponga una modificación de dicha ley
EN GRAN BRETANA SE ESTIMA QUE LOS CANTONESES NACIONALISTAS FRACASARAN EN SU INTENTO DE ORGANIZAR LA CHINA
Sin embargo, se cree que mantendrán y consoli [?] arán su influencia en el sur, presentándose entonces el problema de una China dividida en dos poderosas fracciones
ALEX, GRAN DUQUE RUSO Y ESPIRITISTA, CREE QUE EL SOVIET CAERA PRONTO
PARIS 29. - El Gran Duque Ale [?] de Rusia, primo del ex zar y uno de los espiritistas mas entusiastas de Europa, declaró que Rusia derrocará al Gobierno de los Soviets, antes de dos años, y que se establecerá un nuevo gobierno de paz
Source: Source: Internet Archive / Biblioteca Nacional de la República Argentina