Three Roads

U. S. Business Hit. The Chinese regime at Nanking which dominates the chief part of China, Shanghai, suddenly increased all tariffs and port dues last week to an extent which local U. S. merchants and shippers declared would prove "ruinous." Members of the U. S. colony at Shanghai transmitted through the local consul a protest and appeal to President Coolidge. Observers thought that the Nanking War Lord, Chiang Kaishek, was suffering reverses in his campaign to take Peking (TIME, March 28, et seq.) and had adopted the desperate expedient of raising all port taxes to increase his failing revenue.

Hankow Purged? There was evidence last week that the so-called "Communist" regime at Hankow was purging itself of Russian influence and attempting to resume the program of the late Dr. Sun Yatsen, "Father of the Chinese Revolution." During the week a pronouncement was made, at Hankow, by Sun Fo (son of Dr. Sun) who declared that "three roads" now lie before China: 1) "The road to Communism" which, Sun Fo declared, has now been utterly abandoned by his party; 2) "The road to Fascism," now being followed, said Sun Fo, by his one-time ally the "traitor-militarist" Chiang Kai-shek (See above); and 3) "The road to Nationalism," as originally pointed out by the late, sainted Dr. Sun.

It is this third road, said Sun Fo, that the Chinese at Hankow propose to follow after their disastrous Communist experiment (TIME, April 25).

Although this declaration seemed to promise more stability at Hankow, it was significant that Mrs. Sun Yatsen, widow of the great Doctor, quietly retired to a suburb of Hankow last week and announced that she would withdraw entirely from the political activity there "until better councils prevail."