is my opinion that the lack of spirit in the economic actions, which in essence were directed towards a seizure of economic and political rights, resulted from the economic situation at that time. The Economic Curve shows clearly that the lowest point was reached in 1922, and by 1925 the world economy was on the upswing towards the peak of 1927-1928. One cannot deny that our organization had certain weaknesses, ones that we, as a tropical nation, still manifest today. However, the main reason for the downturn in political strikes in mid-1925 was the exhaustion of the revolutionary spirit throughout Indonesia as a result of the improvement in the economic crisis.
So much for the developments in the politico-economic strikes in 1925, which resulted in the exile of several leaders of the PKI who were desperately needed, particularly in the period leading up to the 1926 events. Let us return to the Canton Bureau.
The Encyclopaedie gives an account that is not far from the truth, since in fact it quoted from the official source, the Comintern organ Internationale Presse Korrespondenz. But, apart from drawing a few conclusions of its own, the Encyclopaedie saw only the surface and was not able to discern what went on beneath.
[114] Actually, I was happy that the Dutch East Indies government in its Encyclopaedie did not see what was happening beneath the surface, because I myself was down there. There are still other similar matters that cannot yet be disclosed, but that I was in charge of the Canton Bureau was an open secret in the Philippines and made things difficult for me there. In fact it was not really a secret any longer. And the existence of the Profintern and its older sibling, the Comintern, was already a fact of history.
I had only just arrived in Canton with the two delegates from Indonesia after an exhausting trip and had not yet had time even to catch my breath, when I went to meet two representatives from the center. One was the Comintern representative who was in contact with me at that time, and the other was the Profintern representative with whom I was to be connected in the future and whom I had known well in Moscow.25 (I call them representatives, because they were responsible to those two bodies of the International. Alimin’s statement in his book Analysis that I was appointed as a Comintern and Profintern representative by two “functionaries” is a great insult to these two organizations of the International.26 This illustrates Alimin’s longstanding characteristic of indifference and irresponsibility even to his comrades in arms when his interests are at stake. I may remind the reader of Alimin’s attitude toward his former leader, the late Tjokroaminoto, in the Afdeling B trial of Sarekat Islam in 1928.27
The meeting went as one would expect between close friends. Before I had even sat down, the Profintern representative began. “Comrade,” he said, “the central leadership of the Profintern has decided to establish a Bureau of Transport Workers, to be located here in Canton. You are to run this bureau, organizing whatever is necessary. A newspaper or magazine shall be published and you are to be in charge of that too. In addition, you must be prepared to speak at the Transport Workers Conference this evening. Your future position as head of the bureau is an independent one, and you will report directly to us in Moscow.”
I was astonished. After recapturing my breath and my thoughts, I worked out a few questions. “Isn’t there anyone else to head this bureau? Aren’t my responsibilities to the Comintern enough in themselves? How can I be in charge of an English-language magazine when I know only enough English to ask directions?”
“We have already taken all this into consideration and have reached the decision unanimously,” answered the comrade from the Profintern.
[115] “We don’t have a shortage of people, do we? In China alone there are several professors among our comrades . . .” I added.
The comrade from the Profintern gave me a short answer that put an end to all my reservations: “As a disciplined Communist, you surely will accept the decision.”
The Transport Workers Conference went very smoothly. At first Dr. Sun was scheduled to appear, but it was decided that politically that would be unwise, so he was represented by Liao Chung-k’ai. On the first day the Profintern representative chaired the sessions, and the second day I was in the chair, and on the third day a Chinese delegate, and so on. In the election for the head of the bureau I was chosen.28
At the close of the conference the delegates returned to their homelands. The Indonesian delegates left Canton. I was alone, left with the task of printing and circulating the speeches and resolutions to all corners of Asia.
Chapter 11
PRINTING PROBLEMS
[116] At that time (1924) Canton had some two million inhabitants. In Western Europe or America a city of that size would have been modern, with giant factories operating up-to-date machines, trams, and surface and underground railways, and with printing presses run by steam or electricity.
But one would try in vain to find such things in Canton in those days. Canton’s only claims to the term “city” were the post office, some electric lighting, and three main roads. A large part of the land traffic consisted of hundreds and even thousands of pedicabs. The streets were dark and narrow, twisting and turning between gold and diamond stores and noodle stands. They were traversed by millionaires and beggars, professors and illiterates, and people shouldering bridal litters, vegetables, and even some of the refuse and waste generated by two million people every day. Neither buses nor pedicabs could enter these tiny crisscrossing Chinese streets. Alongside the main roads adjacent to the river that divides Canton in two were docks for the ships that plied the seaways between Canton and Hong Kong and Macao. On this same river, night and day one could see the tens of thousands of sampans that were the equivalent of the pedicabs on land. It was said that some eighty thousand people lived on these sampans. If one looked out over Canton from the Hotel Asia, the tallest building, one could see but a single smokestack—from the cement factory, which was, I think, on the other side of the Pearl River: only one small smokestack in a city of two million.1 That was the situation in Canton when I started to look for a press to print the English-language magazine for which I had chosen the name The Dawn.2 It was a huge city filled with shops and businesses run on feudal lines, lined by narrow, dark streets and overflowing with pedicabs and sampans.
[117] It’s true, as the adage goes, that “everything new comes from Canton.”3 Had not the social and political revolution started there? Not many years later Canton was to become a really modern city, but The Dawn was born before all that.
While I was sitting wondering how I could possibly carry out the decision of the Canton conference, a Chinese comrade who spoke English well came to take me to meet the veteran revolutionary T’an P’ing-shan.4 T’an P’ing-shan could understand only a little English, but he was considered an educated person in the traditional sense.
All my remarks about the difficulties I was facing in my work and my daily life as a non-Chinese-speaking foreigner and the particular problem of finding a press with Latin letters (there were many with Chinese characters) were answered by his inimitable smile and the words: “All that is true, but don’t give up. Look at our difficulties in every field.”
To help me, T’an P’ing-shan found a professor who ran his own college. Formerly he had been an English teacher at one of the missionary schools, but he had gone on strike and finally walked out, taking some of his pupils with him. Gratefully I went with the man, Professor Huang, into the city of Canton, through the main roads and into the alleys.5 Finally we arrived at a “printshop.” After talking to the printer for several minutes, whispering, shaking his head, and smiling, Professor Huang turned to me and said: “This printer is one of our friends. We can entrust major jobs to him. Even The Dawn can be printed here. The only problem is that he hasn’t got
