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P IS JJD IN T m a d is o s TZLZPH O M Z: F IA Z A a v e n u e g -g g o S • • n ew t o js 0A 313 *332233: 7A M 8?aZ 33 October 25, 1937, Dear* Miss Hosej Thaaic you for sending ms the le t te r that Mrs Sanger received from the Department of S ta te ! - 11 coonaaicate with Miss Smedlsy and also in d ieitf82* “ since the le t te r seems to -ndicate rather plainly that Miss Smedley's passport will not he renewed. ^ b0 Bo yotr think that Mrs. Sanger will be willing write to them again? ------- e ^ours sincerely* Miss Florence Hose Secretary, to Mrs* Sanger f i ; i £°rnia Birkh Control Committee *40 South Figueroa Street L©s Angeles, California jnsmt c it y "iS?; V ... Í¿ íl V- "Vf 81 «•« • ti^ lh ^ ^ É É ^ 8^tóÉÉMÉa^sá¿SÍaÍÉáe^¿^>S 6^éi^B8^ t ó ^ É ^ 8Í8ááÉBÉái6Ító^Íiilál » w L ^ rte? t,Ó0?f_t>f **»• * “P P lii« that eréÑ ítoi-«# S":: ~ 8N®0 th 0B on to yon. ]trs« »«§ 'end-jS^^-ww «a ^ megeatMl in y ear lo tta r ,”^ , * ***. T “ -|T • ™ * * ” ¡J "" ? - ' -* * * ^ s « - u - ^ »*S&te££» «r.!»%-<«. - - á»tíit.¿ «Tfôfr r in Od* «tea th M f i i suore pesos tir O liai i,É^_.it^l>ft *^*w»dy w ritten to the 3eo ret*ry i# ï ? ? * ! ^ * * 0* * ««* **d wordthat iL m tetontloa or order Issued from tfeshtagtea rela tiv e to i t s N m ü l, Z sa glad to l ^ m ì ; •“ 'ïirï«-îI«paat to m 8W h la .t l a a M a g t p n to o o rro a T * ^ 2 * £ « 9 9 Beast*, Présidant - « Vaamgaid Prags ■ ö l jwniWBi AVttBM j *•» ïarfc* B , DMT 1 » , BW U l eThels certain the Indian National Congress, o f H yOU are the President, would donate a sum which our Army wUch f Ve “ Y , Volunteers. You may know that every anna could ® ve 9 1 bo deeply welcomed and would reach 6 Volunteers and enable them to continue their struggle. 261 j?nsiSit'i^-»r‘ p f tàÙk, 'i u ; gag» * «riL ^';-;^.'= '," || ." ¡Mmà '■A*1;| [j j CÀa J s iÀ JtX i ■*’ ~v_ls^j -■ ^ftXFisfN£ht&*iir & .uri^ ^ ••¿:P ... s# 35@«gptwtì{ ila o ;w a i: rt'K__1, '.* pV ! a ra w ite i ?rfr» ~QÌ*i : L à if c SÌS» :»ì iOW k y T'fer *-;5 •€’»■^•4 v ^ ir t i l - teg» «--j- \.-i»w«> A *«S : iiP'iSit? .tff'' T?llS V :C;ÌÌ£S.lllii’ ■? M a - ¿ lù k é ) i i5 #ÌS$# - c/T ■ |«r ^f4*> vé^>£M %* . ■ o ^ u p t^ _ ;# a r r ,t ì i i V ^ :!pQ 9u,piM à. ”Ì8 S à s-, X e a t fo U T àlXOìltlia^Ì l ^ , ; , f t ^ % o ; . 'm u s t ÉEtìfc b e a ^ ift t ì ^ ì r 4Ói rfefipì ìK i h m 4 jid - s o Hry-f&ì' ‘o tirim o a tE s à ,^ * «i o m ^ t T G ^ i | © s .. épxL\ t $ is ‘tim a ;• iOtr';,Oa#;:0fii& fèi3#s $ e .r f e a ^ /a ^ j 4 fe i .' isMtawsst-' « § j § t i 3 ■tljU“CÈ^W iì^i M 1 •^Sll ‘iti NEWYORK, THPRSMV; ÓCT0 BER 28, Ì 937 Go to the Front Aware of the Dangers, BùïU w are Also of the Sig• ’ R nificarice of Their Efforts to Aid the Chinese . Pe0PIe and the Peace Loving World at Large By AGNES ^MEDLEY (The fallowing -is a letter from . the well "known novelist "and writer f¿addressed to B en r Irwin, national '"Aytn-etary o f the 'New 'Theatre Vi Beague.) "~"C /■ ? ■; » if-** I've; been very occupied lately »^ arisin g, with: the Dramatic League ;|niere .which, in Spite of the fact ^ l l * i there’s a., war going on, has » a n y active units. One section is W ® . -“front" Service Group’’«¡which; ] ^aves today ior the anti-Japanese m m m 'active agitation and ^propagu,.da -work among our ' own ' ®nRed Army from She is a5 trained .actress, of course. i mapy. ..theatrical groups in. main Butvshe memorized her role and Flying * ■ - 5 ~i‘ >;t,Kiangsi~where formerly there were played : the chief role 1In “Mother" Squadron * ~ ’ * bcesXers Souring ■Soviet China -ana théjaext flight, The same holds true playing to the troops. Each big of. the writing of plays, In fact the The theatrical; group ‘now! going; theatre, here is a veritable flying • . Paying for (¿Anti-Japanese i t . . -• , j w ; Army, Iv . There have been hundreds of pro- euf I04, ¡Dramatic Club ductions since I returned here In the Kuomintang troops, to the peo- ( Here in the 'center, Yehan, there Jeouafy ofthis year. They range pie in the towns and'Often in the,] n«? hi» r,r ventor e c. . ali „n- frt>m recitatons of ballads on popu case, o f temporary .defeats rem ain-1 is o one big li.rh club or center S wf h làr themes, on through the rich and ing behind in the villages toi in-1 |the ‘t heatrical: groups present plays, ever changing repertoire of little spire the inhabitants‘ with renewed \ •all -under the name of the Ànti- plays, dancing pantomines, and struggle. They are writing,-new] f Japanese pramatic Club. The Anti- dramas of the Children's Dramatic plays now and I ’m going vto try my |Japanese University here, has fròin Group, to the full serious plays, like hand at a Chant for them though i.1,500 in ‘ Ah Q,”' hy-the Hsien, dean m l to 2,000 students, organized lit «jr-v y*«*. late Lii jasien, deal I hardly know where tobpgir.. I ’m formations like a regular ®I.n the front lulled by Japanese bombs, bu!- U""■fWh.0 make acting, a.,.part of their lets Or bayonets, remember -v^fLsom-T':' rjreEylai^work. •’ . . present struggle for .democracy in Chinese theatrical co U e a g u e if^ a ^ i " When this play was given .tcw T Spain. r i tov-the frontifm iy’ r« » ÿ ^ ^ ,4 anôyÂThé"l]ctiQtt^'Æ.m- i f . SOng' “D e fe n d M a d r id Pnay mean ■the theatre in the U S S R ? ' |Eg-J^snde. Germany ¿and America, . well as in othef parts of China, some parts of China, ; the acting Sï«nd production is mediocre due to past;, suppression of ' cultural ' actlv:ity.- -B u t T have seen, plays here in I'Yenanithat can rank with the best ^in.' any.land.jwith a quality of act: ing that is outstanding. . A ;;M 6st.of> th e plays are written.ight hereindividually or collec■voly or taken from oher parts of .H I. WipWWWHiBBBH 2^ ; * ;°“ ni I S c& ii:S issg | j ■ to, the peace-loving world V fW /t r T& c íC " ^ r e ¿ fa ^ rs ^ ^ ^ ' • < y < e .j ^ t**^ -y^Y X THE CHINESE RED ARMY GOES TO TOWN B y AGNES S M E D L E Y I t wasn’t exactly the Red Army that went to W hat was unusual to me was exactly what they town, but it was a part of it. And it also isn t t0° k The unusuai, for them, commenced when generally called the Red Army any more. It is we began to strike the contraptions of modem the 8th Route of the National Revolutionary civilization. F irst came the trucks. Of course, Army of China. But everyone knows what the thev had seen trucks come to Yenan— when land8th Route Army is, and when asking you about slides of mud did not block the roads. They it, they always call it the Red Army. _ had seen these, but had never been in one. How We, who went to town consisted of a party at one section of the road we ..{ ,ound of about fifteen men and women, including two trucks, stranded between landslides, broken foreign women— myself, and another AmfiiiC&P bridges and rivers. They took, us a distance o \voman trying to reach her home m a thirtv miles only, until we had to halt m the "Toastaf city. I was going to Sian for, X -ra y rain on top of a mountain, and the trucks sank examination of an injured back, then on to the up to their hubs in the mud. B u t when we first front as a war correspondent. Many men in got in the trucks, the four characters m this our party were going out to “ White territory story took up their positions along one side^ of for one kind of work or another. But the men, the machine, holding on like grim death. Grin or rather youths, of whom I now write, were ning at each other and at the landscape speeding only four of this whole group. One was the by at fully ten miles an hour, they got their bodyguard of the foreign woman friend. This first thrill of an automobile ride. When we guard was in reality a squad commander from halted at a village they all took turns sitting the First Front Red Army— now renamed the behind the wheel of the truck to see how it felt. First Division of the Eighth Route Army. He Well, they quickly got used to trucks, was a Kiangsi peasant about twenty-five years which by now had become a part of their of age who had fought for years, had gone on ordinary experience. They were later to stop the long march from Kiangsi to the northwest, gasping a t motorcycles, or to wonder a t private a distance of eight thousand miles as the crow cars even when they rode in th e front seat flies—though the Red Army did not march as beside the driver. I t was only when we reached the crow flies. M y own bodyguard was a young Sian th at they began to experience wonders. Szechuen Provincial peasant about twenty years None of them had ever been in a city before. of age from the former Fourth Red Army Corps, This is not much of a city, and the .one, two also with a long marching Tecord. A Chinese and three storey shops are filled with piles of woman had a bodyguard who, at times, was with trashy, expensive things. As a friend once us later in Sian. He was a Szechuen peasant. remarked: “ Japanese goods are rotten ana Then there was my hsiao kwey, or “little devil cheap. Chinese goods are rotten and ejjensive. as these lads are affectionately called. He is a The shops of Sian are filled with both, for Szechuen peasant boy -about thirteen years of Chinese merchants do not hesitate to sell the age, as tough as the mountain birch./ These three bodyguards and the htfiao kwey goods of the enemy invading their country. are the main characters in the story, so to speak. They would sell their own grandmothers if that Coming down from Yenan, the “Communist could bring them money. A city of a quarter stronghold,” to the north meant ten days of of a million, with trashy shops, h''"""'rû it ci marching, riding and wading mud up to your these 'Red Army lads, Sian was a UA thighs. The men thought nothing of this, for filled with wonders. (rices They began to enrich they had marched through mountains of eternal P P P P of the when we finaffy-YenChed^tfei snow, and for weeks over the swampy “Grass ere to live— all ** Lands” of Sikong where, it seems, no man had 8th Route Army, where we all__who put up at /ever been before. So wading landslides of mud except the foreign woman frie uest~ House; Oncer U l e modem 1 U U U C 111 hotel, the fij ^ ~ > &nd crossing rivers on ferries operated by boat- the a t local headquarters, I went to my room and ^ fn labouring in a row and chanting a melanlay down. The door a t once became blocked l$Kbly, primitive chant like galley slaves of 'w ith people,— but not to look at me. From - Relent days, did not seem at all unusual to them. k ■ m Am i ■ H M in « 428 T H E M ODERN R E V IE W FO R OCTOBER, 1938 patiently watch doctors and nurses care for other wounded' paen, most of whom are Chilians. They do not mdan or groan, but wait in whitelipped silence until their turn comes. For every little thing done for them they are eternally grateful,— as if they expect nothing from life. ■ It is a sad truth that, though they are tender to each other when wounded, and' care for each other, still is seems'to come as a surprise to many of them when others come to their aid. This sad fa ct/w ith all its connotations, will perhaps be destroyed before the present Sino-Japanese war comes to an. end. ^ / j IMPRESSIONS OF BOHEMIA B y MONINDRAMOHAN M OULIK, On a warm and bright afternoon early in last June, when the spark of an ominous incident on the CzechrGerman frontier near Cheb had hardly died out, I was approaching the home of the Sudeten Germans who have recently created so much noise and scandal in European politics, ; by the Paris-Prague express. The train was speeding across the green slopes and exuberant spring verdure of the German wood lands, ■ . ' On the 20th May and during the following days, Europe was almost on the brink of a war. Two Sudeten Germans were shot at by the Czech police . near Eger and were incidentally killed. There was anxiety in all tjbe capitals of Europe as to the possibility of a German intervention in Czechoslovakia. The memory of the anaschluss was too fresh to allow European statesmen to dismiss lightly the provocation that this incident might have offered to the fulfilment of Nazi plans in regard to Czechoslovakia. Twro weeks had passed since the incident, still there was a lot of tension in the air. The only other passenger in my compart ment, with whom I had been travelling from Nuremberg, did not speak a single word until we crossed the German frontier and arrived at Eger. He was a Czech businessman from Paris coming home for the Whitsun holidays. After we had left Eger he became very friendly with me and told me without reserve all he knew and all he felt about the present situation in regard to Czech-German relations. I guessed the widom of his taciturn attitude during the German part of the journey. Except for the small movement of customs and passport officers, this frontier station which might have proved a new Serajevo about two weeks ago appeared to be unusually calm and d . sc . pol . (Rome). peaceful. At eight o'clock in the evening the j . streets were deserted and there was practically no traffic even near the railway station. It naturally suggested to me the strong hand that Prague had taken in regard, to the incidents . that became so chronic in the Sudeten German districts of Czechoslovakia. This guess was later on confirmed by the general belief that I found among the important officers of the. j State and members of the Press in Prague that there is only one method of dealing with the 1 Germans, that is, “ to show the red eye.” The- . J v Germans, it is believed in Prague, consider persuasion as weakness. So Czechoslovakia had prepared herself for the worst. As a matter of fact, the entire country seemed to be in the midst of a general mobilization. From the frontier to Prague we noticed at least three lines of fortification, and every I bridge was guarded by soldiers. In many | places on our way, on high promontories we found those military pickets, dressed in greenisn ^ ■woollen khaki, in very cheerful and optimistic mood, guarding the outskirts of their beloved motherland. The Czecks made no secret of their preparedness for war, although the enemy might prove to be infinitely stronger than themselves. There was a touch of desperation in the determination of young Czechs to defend their newly acquired independence after i centuries of subjection and torture. Every S young man whom I had the opportunity to f meet in Czechoslovakia gave me the impression ! of this desperation and of an instinctive aversion to the Teutonic menace. The present quarrel between the Germans and Czechs can never be understood in its proper historic significance until one realizes jy the fundamental difference between the Slav and Teutonic temperaments that has given men i own f WE START FOR THE FRONT B y AGNES S M E D L E Y >... Sanyuan, North Shensi, China. Sept. 17, 1937. Dear F riends, After a trip of ten days, I arrived here yesterday. On September 7th I left Yenan in north-west China, for Sian, in an attempt to reach the hospital here where I could get treatG S ment for my injured spine. I travelled in a variety of ways— by stretcher on horseback, in a few places on the backs of men. I walked at times, and I rode in a motor truck for a stretch of 90 li (3 li in a mile). My back is now far worse than when I left Yenan and I still have not reached Sian. From people passing through here to the north today I learn that the rivers are swollen from the rains and it took them three days to come here from Sian, though it is normally a trip of about four hours by motor truck. From here I am to go to Sian by motor truck, though I do not think I can endure a motor trip for three days,-or even one full day, over these terrible roads. Still there is no other way, as my stretcher was sent back to Yenan yesterday. I must remain here for a few days until comrades in Sian secure permission from the Kuomintang authorities for me to enter the city. It is ridiculous but true, that while Communist representatives sit on the General Staff in Nanking, I, a non-Communist, am not even allowed to enter Kuomintang territory. I sit and lie here, and wonder if I shall have to make the long trip back to Yenan, with no possibility of having my back treated at all. When I left Yenan I had high ambitions. I intended to keep a day-by-day diary and send it abroad that people might get a glimpse of this part of ¡the country and of the conditions under which the Chinese people live— and under which Chinese troops and the people must fight the modern Japanese war machine. But as the end of each day came, I was so exhausted and often in such pain that I could not write. Neither could I rest, and often I could not sleep. I ^lay through many nights with that hard, white wide-awakeness of nervous tension. I took drugs which I had brought along, but even these would put me into uneasy sleep for at most two to three hours. The first day out of Yenan was a day i shall never forget. About thirty to forty li away we learned that the road ahead of us was so bad that no animals could possibly pass. Men might manage it, but not our horses or pack mules. Our party divided, some 20 men going by foot to cross the road ahead. The animals, and I on my stretcher turned up the mountain side to go by mountain paths. We travelled along the mountain sides and tops for four or five hours. I lay on the stretcher and looked at the endless mountain ranges in all direction, at the occasional flame of leaves turning red this autumn. The mountain range over which we passed was covered with low bushes and small trees, and with a prof us'on of every kind of flower— blue bells, white daisies, all kinds of yellow and purple flowers. The only human habitation was a mud cave in which two peasant men lived. They sold us a few hsiao kwa, or small sweet squash. That was all we had to eat since leaving Yenan. i had brought food for my guard and hsiao kwey< (“ little devil a boy about 12 or 13 years of age who is like my little brother and who wanted to come with m e). But our food was on a mule in the distance. M y carriers had no food at all. They labored along over the mountain, and their heavy breathing sickened my heart. I am not yet accustomed to being carried on the shoulders of human beings. They walked with a slow, swinging trot. Once I took my eyes from the distant ranges and looked down the side of my stretcher. Below me yawned a vast, deep ravine, and the sides of the ravine before me had crumbled away. I turned to the other side, to avoid looking* into this abyss, only to find that the same abyss yawned on the other side.” I was swing'ng in space, with what seemed an endless abvss on either side of me. Only the carriers before and behind me assured me that earth was under their feet. I closed my eyes and waited and after a time opened them. We turned down a path and I was able to look back. Our party had gone between two yawning caverns. No earth remained between them except a narrow footpath about two feet wide. One more rain and this entire path of two to three hundred feet long would crumble away and the two abysses would merge into one. Slightly further on we met our pack animals returning. They were cut off from the paths before them bv & landslide that had destroyed the path. The* reach wliate could Before M and tc caughi My g arms f should was h, hundrt water main ' | men y afternc carrier and w buted . and ai carrier first t( J not foi i sides h the val j bushes feet del of feet time b< their n J W< and m , j id )H| animal; most" % b them fi whippet when t ,2 pushed | way at )E0hHM safest ; y ferocioi J lay in j threw t (1 way oi ■j morass 1 ; no - [j terrible 1 hj side, he' pi one pi a | only to N such pi yj Each 0,43 iach tlfr y There is M W E START FO R T H E FRO N T ssibly pass, r horses or me 20 men ihead. The ned up the paths. We nd tops for retcher and nges in all of leaves ntain range 1 with low >rofus;on of lite daisies, >wers. The id cave in f. sold us a rash. That Yenan. i hsiao kwexp 13 years of • and who r food was iers had no over the ig sickened' d to being an beings, trot. Once ranges and ler. Below the sides of l a#ay. I )oking into ame abyss wingmg in 5 abvss on before and was under vaited and ed down a Our party verns. No a narrow more rain *e hundred i the two tlv further ing. They them bv ft Dath. The* 607 men reconnoitered and decided to break their the sea of mud before us. We then spread out own path down the mountain side and try to and reconnoitered and men said : “ We passed reach the main road and try to go along it, worse places than this on the long march. This whatever might be the result. My carriers also we can cross.” And always we crossed. could not carry me down the steep decline. Each time we-watched the animals in fear lest Before us our animals slid down on their hoofs they sink in the mud and die, or lest they break and tails for hundreds of feet, stumbling, being a leg. Three animals lost their shoes. And caught and held upright by trees and bushes. they were more and more exhausted. My own My guard and one of the carriers put their injured back ached and each time I crossed a arms around me. I threw my arms around their place I lay down on the stretcher and waited shoulders, and we three followed the horses. I for the men to come. Then one of my carriers was half carried down the mountain slopes for fell ill from exhaustion and hunger. He lay in hundreds of feet, then through a swamp with the wet grass by the roadside. I got out my water half to the thighs, and out onto the first-aid kit and gave him some aspirin to stop main road where the exhausted animals and his headache temporarily. There was little else men were resting. It was about three in the I could do. afternoon and none of the men had eaten. The For hours we struggled over these land carriers announced that they were so hungry and weary they could not carry me. I distri slides, I thought at times I could endure it no buted all the food I had brought to all the men longer, but always we went on. It was dark and after a time we started out again. The when we crossed the sixth one and started out carriers were too weary to carry me, so I had anew. A peasant told us here was a good road: first to walk and then to ride a horse. But ahead of us. I rode a weary horse and he not for long. Before us on the main road was would not go unless my guard led him and a sight I shall never forget. Whole mountain another took a whip and forced him forward. sides had broken away and slid down through We were all cold, wet, hungry, weary. We the valleys in great landslides, taking trees and passed a few mud huts of peasants, but they bushes with them. This debris, ten to thirty had no hot water, and nothing to sell us. The ^ ^ across the main roads for hundreds lest of our party on foot had bought everything ^ we had nothing. At one place we of feet. Two mules had tried to cross some time before us, but had sunk in the mud up to asked a very old peasant for hot water. Ho could not understand a word we said. Back their necks and died. of him was his mud hovel. Down thè hillside We had to cross. We unloaded the animals and men carried the heavy burdens up and had come two younger men, apparently his sons, around the slopes of the mountains. The lh ey were short, squat men with long hair animals we drove through the mud over the about their faces. They were bent almost most passable sections. In fear we watched double with stacks of wood on their backs. them flounder up to their bellies. We shouted, I rom beneath their loads they lifted their dark whipped them when we could reach them, and faces, grinning at us. I thought of all I had when they lay stuck in the mud got poles and read and heard of the Middle Ages of Europe pushed them. Desparately they fought their of the peasant serfs, half-slave, half-human, way across, a mass of mud. I watched the bo European serfs must have been. These wisdom of these animals. They picked out the peasants are so isolated th at they speak their safest places, picking carefully, then going own dialect, and I suppose the number of their ferociously through. They often sank and words do not reach a hundred. Their clothiny ay m the mud, then after a minute of rest is a few rags, literally rags, their bed a mud threw themselves into the air and fought their kang^ their food such as animals could not live on. without dying. way out. On the other side of the terrible At last we reached a small village. I t was morass they stood heaving with exhaustion. Nothing could carry me across these night and we were cold and hungry. We could terrible places. I climbed up the mountain buy some dry bread-cakes and some water de, helped by my guard and a carrier. Across melons, and on this we made a meal and went one place, we loaded the beasts and went on, to sleep. Andf the next morning at 5 we were on thp road again. only to find another landslide before us. Six T hat morning I lay on the stretcher for a such places we crossed in the course of ten li. few hours. The clouds had sunk into the valley ^ach one seemed worse than' the other and ach time I said : “ I t is simply impossible ! and slowly, slowly rose. I looked up the ihere is no way !” W 6 all stood and looked at mountain sides. Each bush, each blade of grass, was hung with cob-webs, both large and *608 T H E M OD ERN R E V IE W FO R D E C E M B E R , 1937 small. Some were so large that I could see step in this direction. And so from this village each strand. They were wet with the heavy on, I began a daily routine of doctoring our clouds and dew and so stood out clear and white party, other parties on the way. and the local against the green background. It was uncanny. people. When we halted to rest for the nighty Then the clouds lifted before the sun and the my work began, always for about two hours. cob-webs -began to disappear as the dew on Soon we had to have squads of our own troops them dried. The mountain sides were covered to accompany us for protection, and then they with a hundred different flowers— with sprays were added to the list. Many of them have of blue bells, white daisies, purple and yellow falling arches from constant marching. Soon my flowers, and with a wild flower whose blossom carriers began to complain of falling arches. was something like the wild rose of America. They do not know what it is, of course. And, The whole landscape began to remind me of the of course, I can do nothing there at all. Their mountains of western America—that is, without shoes are rope or cloth sandals and there is America’s rocky cl:fts. There are only a few absolutely no help that I can give. And before mountains here with boulders. Everything is long my carriers began to fall off and had to be sent back while I had to hire new men. this fine porous loess. All day we travelled through these valleys. So I became a sort of wandering first-aid But after three or four hours, the carriers were worker. At times I would lie on my bed and, too weary to carry me and I had to ride a with the help of my guard, tend the feet stuck horse. The carriers are too weak from under up on the bedside. But most of the time I nourishment. They do not get enough to eat. had to get up and bend down. M y back ached So from this day onward, I began to feed the and it was difficult to continue. At one place carriers myself. But even with this, they were peasants came to me for help. They have never able to carry me more than 3 to 4 hours worms. I had no medicine but later bought a day, though there were five of them taking some in a big town and sent it back to th em .. turns, and sometimes two of the mafoos At another place I found a young peasant youth helped. with a badly injured foot. Blood poisoning had It was at the end of this day, in a small set in. I am no doctor and this was terrible. town where we stopped for the night, that I I disinfected the injury and treated the foot as began daily work. One of the carriers came to best I could, then went on after giving Bie lad me with an injured foot, and I disinfected and instructions. But that worried me all night and bound it up. He went away and, one by oue, for the next two days and still I keep ih.nk.ng most of the other carriers and the mafoos came. of it. That night I had a discussion with my, They all had something wrong somewhere— cut translator about it, and a conflict in viewpoint feet, one with an ulcer on his leg, and one ' arose. He is an intellectual, a teacher from with a terrible ulcer on his stomach. I fixed Peiping and a Communist Party member. I them up and they went away. A party ahead told him I wish I could have helped the peasant of us then sent men back to be cared for, and boy, for I think he will die from blood poisoning. two men with a party on the way to Yenan M y translator answered : “ Sympathy with the came for help. They had severe headaches with people is utterly useless. There are too many fevers. One man came to me with dysentery. of them.” I answered : “ You mean I should Then came the local peasants. A man brough* not help that boy with blood poisoning ? ” “ It his baby with a head sore four years old. One is useless,” he said. man with syphilis came. A Red Army man “ It is not useless,” I argued. “ It took five •came complaining of head pains that come from or ten minutes of my time. We waste more a rotten tooth. Before this evening was finished time than that each day in useless things. I had treated fifteen or twenty men and tola What sort of argument is this— that I should half a dozen others I could do nothing. I can pass by a boy suffering like that ? We are a do the ordinary, first-aid cases, but, of course, group of people from the Red Army and the I can do nothing about teeth or syphilis. I Communist P arty . The strength of the Red have medicine for dysentery and other stomach Army, and of the Communist Party which leads disorders. What astounded me is that though it, has never been in military force, but there are some intellectuals in our party, not primarily in its intimate, organic connection -one of them had taken one step to get medicine with the masses. They have helped the people for themselves from the Yenan hospital. Not in countless, countless ways. Wherever possible, one person had taken any precautions about whenever possible, in a thousand wavs, we must injured feet. I was the onlv person among also always help where we can. We need not twenty or thirty men who had taken even one detract ourselves from our main purpose— all we liave minutes c I wa saw in th attitude > China. 1 thousand . become b main pur the heart where, ar cracy ” i; have seen to help a own well seen this Their firs their owi social acti fury. An Communii this trip, medicine right. Bi; was a wje and again “ We have sym nothing a I I rep! of the pe bourgeoisi ^ 5>all think < || They will You say t “ The “ I qr v “ Sym “ Whc that theoi A Commu nothing a tionary.” Each Yenan, wl: had one ■ taking car who gathci bringing tl for help f twenty pe sores, ston disinfect, stomach < guard now men. W E START FOR T H E FRONT is village we have to do at times is to merely give a few ning our minutes of our leisure.” the local I was deeply irritated because I feared I he night, *> saw in the attitude of my translator an ancient ro hours, attitude of the “ intellectual aristocrats ” of ra troops China. I realized that I can easily take up a hen they thousand t h i n g s— and sometimes do— and em have become buried in them to the detriment of my Soon my main purpose. But at the same time I hate 5 arches. the heartlessness of the ruling classes every $e. And, where, and of the Chinese “ intellectual aristo 1. Their cracy ” in particular. For years in China I there is f have seen that they often will not lift a finger id before to help anyone. They will only think of their 1 had to own welfare, look after themselves. I have men. seen this with a number of men in Yenan. first-aid J Their first thought, last and always, has been bed and, j their own welfare. After that they will do jet stuck social activity. This has driven me to relentless ; time I fury. And now I saw it in a member of the ck ached j Communist Party. Y et he has been sick on ne place this trip, and he did not hesitate to ask me for ey have medicine and for help. That seemed to him all * bought right. But when I helped poor peasants, that to them, was a waste of «time. I challenged him time nt youth and again for his attitude. He answered : o:ng had “ We in China think the petty bourgeoisie terrible, j have sympathy. Of course I admit they do i foot as nothing about it.” : +he lad I replied : “ I have known many members ight and of the petty bourgeoisie and also of the big ih.nkmg bourgeoisie in China. So far as I can see they with my all think only of themselves and their families. iewpoint ' They will not lift a finger to help anyone else. ter from You say they have sympathy— I doubt it.” mber. I peasant “ They have sympathy,” he replied. “ I question that.” oisoning. l “ Sympathy is not enough,” he retorted. with the ! io many “ Who says sympathy is enough? I deny [ should that theory is enough, however revolutionary. ? ” “ It A Communist who only talks theory but does nothing about it, practically, is no revolu tionary.” ;ook five te more ! Each day, after the second day out from things. Yenan, when we came to a rest for the night, I C should had one to three hours work ahead of me, re are a taking care of the sick or injured. Peasants and the who gathered to watch me tend our party began he Red bringing their families, their babies, or asking ch leads for help for themselves. Often I had ten to ce, but J twenty peasants to look after— boils, ulcers, nnectioD j sores, stomach complaints, fevers. But I can i people J disinfect, bandage, help those with fevers or possible, stomach complaints of various kinds. My we must guard now cleans and disinfects injuries of the leed not j men. ose—all '6 0 9 1 Sianfu, Shensi, Sept. 20, 1937. W e have reached Sian at last. My: experience on the road shows me the j depths of “non-knowing ” of the common people / of China. It is not only that they do not know the most common methods of protecting themselves from disease, but also I see the need of travelling dispensaries or public health workers. True, the Communists have introduced widespread public health campaigns and we now have many hospitals in the north-west. But once beyond the borders of the regions administered. by the Communists, and you seem to sink in a deep black well. ; For instance, at one village I wanted to buy some dry bread-cakes. But a whole swarm of flies had settled on the bread. The store-keeper came and shooed them away. I saw flies had been caught in the dough and cooked with it. I explained that I did not want bread on wh'ch flies had settled. He laughed in hilarious amusement, then turned and called a number of people from the back of the shop and told them that I would not buv his bread because flies had settled on i t ! They all laughed at me. I watched them laugh and felt that I was walking through the Middle Ages of Europe. I suppose this was the first' time they had ever heard that someone did not want to eat bread covered with fl:es.' Since I am a foreigner, the incident will never apply to them or to Chinese in general, but will be put down as one of the many idiosyncracies of foreigners. In Yenan, where merchants were forced to cover food with mosquito nets, and Red troops patrolled the streets to find that public health measures were carried out, the people have learned much. But not in these villages beyond Communist borders. And so I went on and on, walking or riding through the Middle Ages. We left the valleys and came out on the high plateaus. They reminded me of the broad mesas of south-western America. In all directions I could see the tops of plateaus, many of them corroded and all but destroyed by the rains. Unlike western America, however, the sides of all the plateaus were terraced, and, in some places, cultivated. At other times we would travel for a whole day and see not one cultivated, terrace. The mountain sides were indeed terraced, but the rains had washed some of them away and grass had grown over them. It was clear that they had not been cultivated for many years. The country was desolate, without population. Only now and tlrn would we come to a tiny village of a few houses and iiiü/ MUDEKJN Kill VIEW FO R D E C E M B E R , 1937 A few ragged peasants. I recalled the terrible Oh yes, I think of things that it will take a famine of 1928-29 that carried off nine million hundred years to achieve after the revolution people in the north-west, many of them right About me I see the people with a few rags from this region. But it is not this alone. dirty and patched beyond description, to cover This whole region has been the scene of them. Our own men live on dry bread and Mohammedan up-risings and invasions. For water and now and then a few vegetables decades also Chinese warlords have bled this They lie down to sleep at night, often with no «country white, taking crops, animals, chickens, covering at all, or with a piece of cotton cloth while officials have levied taxes that stripped spread on the earth beneath them. They have the people of their last grain of millet. Soldiers absolutely nothing beyond what they carry on have over-run this country, leaving syphilis in their bodies. They do not even know the their wake, so that children often cannot even meaning of a full stomach as do the fairly be brought to life. There are places in this well paid workers of the West. An American north-west where you can find no child under could not live at all, it seems to me, if he lived ten years of age. This problem is one of the as do the Chinese workers or peasants. The most serious facing the Communist administra Chinese masses need everything on earth__food, tion in the north-west. Their hospitals in that clothing, housing, education, medical help. The region are always busy treating men and country needs everything also— everything one women for this old disease, and the fight to can think of. Y et nothing can be done until prevent any syphilis from spreading to the Red the Japanese are driven out. Army (now re-named the 8th Route Army) is So the days pass and we go along the a big one. No volunteer with syphilis can Ta Lou (Big Road) toward Sian, from which eater the 8th Route Army and, so far, the place we will later go to the front to fight the arm y remains clean. Or, men with it must be Japanese. We pass Red Army cavalry com carefully treated and kept in units separate panies moving northward. They ride beautiful from the others. But since our army is largely strong horses— captured from Generals in Kansu an army of sexual ascetics, there is little or over a year ago, during the civil wars. Some no chance of the disease spreading from of the men ride like Mongols—-and perhaps are contact. Any violation of women by the Army Mongols. They are a hard, strong-looking is also one of the most serious offences; and crowd of men as they ride by, their rifles down is heavily punished. Still, as I go through this their backs, their horses going with a steady, north-west, even along this big road, I wonder rapid trot. At other times we pass companies why venereal diseases are not more widespread. of Red troops, all with shovels, going out to Even our own men do not know what a germ mend the roads. At one place we passed a few is. I see cooks in wayside hovels wiping dozen students from a town school, with about chopsticks with dish rags literally black with a hundred Red troopers, all with picks and filth. They wipe the bowls with the same rag, shovels, mending the roads. Peasants with wipe the perspiration from their faces with the laden donkeys or mules passed us. Parties of same, wipe off the tables with the same. This men on foot passed us, some of them students one rag must be a depository of all the diseases walking to Yenan to the Anti-Japanese Military of Asiav Y et our own men eat with the chop and Political University. We came to one sticks without washing them. I am constantly town, Tungpu, where six girls, dressed in taking chopsticks from my guards and pouring shorts, came to see me, and with them two boiling water over them—to their tolerant Red Army men. The whole group had read my amusement. I cannot explain what a germ is. first book, Daughter of Earth, and came to If I tried it, I could not prove it, anyway, and visit . me. The girls were students from they would listen politely but then, among Nanking and have walked for many weeks themselves, think me a bit crazy. How to overland to reach the Commmrst areas. They show the people germs has been a problem in want to go to the front with the Army, in the my mind fof years. Front Service Corps.” doing propaganda As I ride along on my stretcher, my mind among the troops and the peasants, against the is filled with these and a thousand more Japanese. They are strong, stocky, intelligent thoughts. I wonder, for instance, how to girls, some of them speaking very good English. prevent this soil of the north-west, the richest At night we put up in the homes of the on earth, from being washed away and carried people. Generally my guards and mv hsiao along the Yellow River to the sea; or to kwey sleep oil tables or boards by my side. prevent floods. I think of possible vast fruit At times there are no houses for us and we orchards and pine forests in the north-west. live in the little rooms connected with the Gene recei An vehicle was gi to the .of Sha for I B iap'anes i W E START FO R T H E FRO N T stables in which we feed our horses. The horses fight and the dogs bark and growl and the men about me snore. I often do not sleep. One night my guards and I, my carriers, and the mafoos all slept side by side in the entrance to a stable. I lay on my canvas bed, my guard on my stretcher, and on either side the carriers and mafoos stretched out on the bare earth. At another place we all slept the same way, but a company of Red troops were with us as protection, and they also lay down and slept on the bare earth. I lay awake for hours from weariness of the day’s march, my nerves taut. I took medicine but it would put me to sleep for one or two hours only. I would then lie awake, watching the dark forms of the sleeping men about me. They lay without moving, hour upon hour. This interested me. I think foreigners toss and tumble in their sleep. I know that I do. I know that I am a violent sleeper just as I am a violent “ waker.” But these Chinese workers and peasants lie for hours, and I think that some of them do not turn over all night long. I have slept side by side with them many nights now, and I have not seen them move. I lie and watch them and' think. In no other country, I believe, could I live the life I live in China— living and sleeping side by side with men, without one doubt about my safety. I feel far safer than if I were in closed rooms. Some of these men have carried me on their backs over streams. Others have put their arms about me and carried me down hills. As we go along, others gather wild flowers and stick them in my stretcher, or give them to me. They come up and tuck in the blankets about me on the stretcher. When I must ride a horse a number come and literally lift me in the air and put me on the horse that my back might not be strained. If they have a bit of food, they share it with me. One of my carriers got a pomegranate and brought it to me. I t was a precious gift. I knew it cost at least ten cents— and that was very, very much for him. I was so deeply moved that I could hardly speak, but could only grasp and hold the hands that held the pomegranate out to me. So I lie at night, side by side with these men. Never have I known such im personal class love as that shown me. I know that if I should ever speak to bourgeois people anywhere about this experience of mine, they would smirk and titter, or look a t me with cold, hostile eyes. To each other they will say : She has been sleeping with bunches of coolies and^mafoos ! ” Yes, I have been sleeping with coolies and mafoos, with Chinese workers and Peasants. They have lain on all sides of me, 77— 2 611 fifteen or twenty, and with them Red Army fighters. And I know that they are my pro tection and my strength and that on them I can depend to the very end. And I know that not one would ever approach me in any but brotherly, comradely comradeship, and in the minds of them will never be the idea of sex. What bourgeois can understand th at ? Not one, I think. Nor will they believe. Nor do I care if they understand or- believe. Y e t there are some exceptions to the rule of these Chinese men of the massés sleeping without turning over. In the night I see that my guard, the Szechuen peasant youth who was sick with pneumonia this past winter, is different. He is a very sensitive youth, unable to sleep in disorder and noise. He tosses and tumbles in his sleep when he hears a noise. Often the horses fight in the night, kicking and squealing. The dogs howl a t the moon. Once a mule got loose and stormed around the stable yard. M y guard awoke, though no other person did. The others “ lie like a stone on a man long dead.” But this guard is also very irritable. He is not fitted to go to the front. Still, I nursed him all winter long and have become very fond of him, as I have of my hsiao kwey. These two boys are like my brothers. When we left Yenan, my hsiao kwey was like a bird out of a cage. He is a Szechuen peasant boy about twelve or thirteen years of age who has been in the Red Army for three or four years. He is a* tough little fellow— unspeakably tough. Y e t his heart is enlarged from the hard life he has led. Months of rest and good food has given him much strength and he is in excellent physical condition.. When we left Yenan he put his red sweater which I gave him, and his flashlight and leggings on my stretcher, and was off and away. Sometimes I could see him in the distance, and it seemed he would reach the front in a few hours. Then I would lose sight of him for hours. He would turn up from the rear, or appear with a big handful of flowers for me, decorating my stretcher. He investi gated all parties of people marching far in front of us, and he investigated those in the rear. He looked over the country in general. Once when we came into Tungpu, a town of consider able size, I thought he was far in the rear. Night came and I worried about him and kept asking if he had come. Then after another hour he came dragging himself in. He had long since reached Tungpu in advance of our party, and had gone to the theatre. Of course my guard barks at him because he worries us, or because 612 T H E M ODERN R E V IE W FO R D E C E M B E R , 1937 he think he does not help enough. But he is a the history of Christianity but force? Even to child and I am glad he can enjoy himself some the present day it is nothing else,” Then he spoke as do so many Christians : of the time like this. I watch him and wonder what kind of man he will make. He loves the “ Gh, those who use force are not true Christian.” We discussed force. I argued that the open road, new places. He has known nothing Communists do not begin their thought or action else for years. He will undoubtedly grow to manhood in the army, and will know nothing with the idea of force. They work for a new but fighting all his life. For the Chinese social system whereby the means of life shall revolution will be fought out for many years, become common property instead of private. and perhaps many decades. I lie on my stret They insist that the exploiters shall get off the cher and wonder what kind of life this, my little backs of the producers and cease sucking out. brother, will have. So long as I remain in the their blood. If the exploiters refuse, then force army, I shall try to keep him with me and see enters, for the Communists kick them off the that he is taken care of as well as I can take backs of the people. Why, I asked Mr. Bell, care of him. When I sometimes have to walk, does he disapprove of kicking the exploiters he comes and takes my hand and we walk to off the backs of the people? Mr. Bell argued that we must change the gether, and my guard comes, links his arms in mine, and half supports me. So we walk hearts of people. I asked if he meant the together. They teach me Szechuen words— landlord, and he said he did. Bntil then, the often very different from Chinese of the north. people must carry these creatures on their Many words I use are not only these Szechuen backs? W hat fo r? For two thousand years we have waited for Christians to show us words, but from their villages. The days passed—-over a week'—we came their theory of brotherly love in practice. But to ft town garrisoned by troops of the Central even in two thousand years they have shown Government of Nanking. Then my patients at nothing of the kind. If now Christians continue night when we stopped for rest, were Nanking telling the people to be passive and allow the soldiers. They came with ulcers on their legs, exploiters to »ride them to d e a t h , then with cut feet that had not been taken care of, Christianity V merely a weapon of capitalism. Mr. Ben argued that if we changed the and some with falling arches. I do what I can. They are very grateful. Since hot water is a heart of the rich and powerful they would cease problem, I sometimes ask them to bring pans of to be exploiters. When I asked to see such hot water for other men to bathe and disinfect people, he argued that two thousand years is their feet. They bring it and give it to me as a very short time in the history of the world ! if they were making a present, and we smile at He said he would like to see just one nation refuse to use violence, to be truly Christian. each other, each grateful to the other. O n the tenth day after leaving Yenan, we I One nation, like China. Immediately, he said, [reached the large town of Sanyuan, four hours |we would not see the results, but in two or three by truck from Sianfu. We put up in a big clean hundred years we would see the great historical room of our local army office, in this town. My significance of such a nation. To this I replied guard and translator slept on the k ’ang and I that such a nation as China, passive and put up my camp bed as usual, in a corner. Here refusing to fight the incoming Japanese, would we stayed for two nights. On the second day be wiped out. or driven to the depths of I called on the local J n t i a h^aiaacparies and beastiality by Japanese imperialism, so that in bought some-J£Qr_m_jneH^ n e to haan/b k cK _- two hundred years the Chinese would merely peasants on Jffiero ad 7 M r a n fQ to T jie ll were be a horrible example. Mr. Bell did not think more th an M n d iin d X sii£nt half oi_pne day with so. The Communists and the Christians have them, having lunch with thc i m V l r . Bell and I much in ‘common, he said, and we could work ' together in many ways. To this I agreed. But, enga gedl n j o u r ^ ^ nism and ClTristianity. He is a very liberal- he continued, when it comes to force, we pari m i n d e r ^ i T a n d ^ r y friendly to the Commu company. I argued that we do not, because the nists. He says the Red Armv is the best army Christians use force, both active and passive. that has ever been in Shensi and that it has Our difference is that Christians preach gained the whole-hearted support of the people. individual perfection, while the Communists I The Communists are quite right in their know that if society is changed, men change objective, he savs, but he disagrees with their their natures accordingly. That with a classi method of using force. Here he and I locked free society, nrien can develop to a new, great height, selfless, creative. \ horns in a friendly manner, for manv hours. Well, we went around and around the " F o r c e ? ” I asked him. “ And what is mult argu each told Com Othe not of n work burd beco: couk lalke revol knev migh indir aske< aloni becai Chris this after to w hund Nor > is nc from | I wa them not 1 stiddc of di Sanv missir 1 of th Ma jo my t and i only of tin of or nurse me t medie the r their is inf I weeks has g to go here aroun own 1 unitec W E START FO R T H E FRO N T Even to ristians : iristian.” that the or action >r a new life shall private, it off the king out. len force 1 off the VIr. Bell, exploiters ange the eant the then, the on their nd years show us ice. But re shown continue illow the h, then italism. nged the uld cease see such years is e world ! le nation Christian. , he said, ) or three historical I replied sive and se, would epths of 0 that in d merely not think ans have oild work ¡ed. But, | we part »cause the 1 passive. 3 preach mnmunists n change i a classiew, great ound the 613 mulberry bush. Mr. Bell walked the floor, been for years one of the pet hates of the arguing, and I passed him as I walked the floor, Kuomintang, and now the Shensi Provincial each of us waving our hands at each other. I Government tells the police here to keep off told him to read the works upon which the the grass. It is a strange, strange feeling for Communists base their thought and action. me— the first time in all these years in China Otherwise he will go through an epoch like this that I have been .protected. Of course, I know not knowing what it is that moved an army that it is the Army and policy that has done of millions of men and women throughout the this. I am filled with such hope that soon I world. He agreed that he ought, but he is too shall leave for Taiyuanfu and go to our front. burdened with work. He told me I should I think two weeks rest here will be enough, if ^become a Christian, but to this I replied I I follow the treatment given me by the could not because I did not believe in it. We hospital. talked about Jesus. I considered Jesus a social In the meantime I shall lie here in local revolutionary in his day who went as far as he headquarters. The local “ offices ” of our Army knew how, but who was overburdened by the here are very large, but each room is filled with might of the Roman Empire and so preached men and women. Political prisoners have been individual perfection and life hereafter. He released in Nanking and Soochow, and many asked me why it was that the thought of Jesus of them have come here enroute to the North. alone had endured, and I held that that is So they are here waiting until they can go, because of the cruelty of class'society, whereas though some of them go each day. The tiny Christianity taught the oppressed to endure rooms have at least two men or two women in this and they will be rewarded in heaven here them, and the big ones are filled. Boards have after. Now, I told Mr. Bell, we are not willing been nailed together and put across stools. We to wait another two thousand years, or even a eat together by compounds. I eat with about hundred years, to see if Christianity will work. a dozen men and women in our compound, and Nor will workers and peasants anywhere. There other comrades in the other compounds each is no other way before us now than struggle have their own mess. In the house adjoining from capitalism into a new social system. is a woman comrade, wife of a political leader Mr. and Mrs. Bell had an appointment and in the front headquarters. She has just given I was returning to our local office. So I left birth to a baby. She was director of theatrical them, promising to return next day if we did work in the First Division of the army. Here not leave for Sian. But next day came and in this headquarters also I have suddenly we had to leave for Sian. A couple friends of former years, one of them (% m -f e p % ^ of days later I met Mr. Upchurch, from the I once wrote a special story about Shan^liiHSnd Sanyuan Mission in Sian. So far, none of the for years lost track of her. When I arrived missionaries are evacuating. here two days ago she sprang out Upon me, In Sian I am living in the local Sian office and amongst other things showed me her child, of the 8th Route Army. Dr. Tate and Miss a boy about four years, of age, the child of a Major of the missionary hospital have examined Red commander who fell in the attack on my back by X -Jay IiTFcUll^every other means Fuchew in Northern Kiangsi about four years and it is clear that no bones are fractured. The ago. She goes to Yenan soon. We each go only thing is spraining and bruising of muscles our own way again, she to the north, I to the of the back, and the breaking of the peritoneum front. of one hone. AH of the British doctors and I am so close to the revolution that I nurses in the Sian hospital gathered, served suppose I lose much of its significance. This me tea that morning, and we discussed the °j a C^earln£ house for revolutionaries medical and public health work in Yenan and ?aRd things revolutionary is, objectively speaking, the regions of the north. They asked about one of the most dramatic institutions possible. their mission property and I told them that ih Here are perhaps a hundred released political is intact, even to the pictures on the walls. ' prisoners, here men and women come and go I hope to leave for the front within two from every part of China, here a radio operates ßss weeks at the most. The Provmcial Government all the time and outside even now I hear news has given me a special visa which entitles me being broadcast from Nanking, with the to go throughout the north-west, or to remain Japanese interrupting the wave length so th at here as long as I wish. Police spies, nosing we can hardly distinguish anything. When we around generally. have been told to mind their get off the Nanking news wave length, we can own business and leave me alone. This is the get clear Japanese sending news, or Peiping United front with a vengeance ! Here I have musical broadcasting. Or, we can get the s I | 0J2J. T H E M ODERN r J cV IEW sickening Shanghai night club music, all about a man handing a woman an orchid. An orchid FO R D E C E M B E R , 1937 in the midst of death / and destruction in Shanghai ! The gentleman hands her an orchid l ill take a revolution, few rags, , to cover Dread and vegetables, n with no tton cloth They have carry on know the the fairly American f he lived nts. The rth— food. telp. The thing one lone until along the Dm which fight the dry coinb:autiful in Kansu rs. Some rhaps are ig-looking a steady, ¡ompanies ig out to 3ed a few ith about icks and nts with Arties of students Military to one essed in hem two read my came to ts from y weeks s. They y, in the English. s of the j -*.• j G en eral re c e iv in g C h ia n g K a i-s h e k and h is w ife fo r e ig n c o rre s p o n d e n ts N a n k in g at , , V lA ~ i was g i v e n 4 ok by p la c e w hen th e Ja p a n e s e p e r m is s io n a u th o r itie s ‘f cl r ? s i f, e n t s o f t h ew — E aV .W s t eV r4 n11 U a ri e a of sS hh aa n g h a i t o e n t e r t h i s “ w r uee ■ w aa rrr--. zz7 n on n o ”” fo r re m o v a l o f n p e r as n o n a l gcrnnrle oods j j j ' Ja p a n e se m o u n te d a rea , J tro o p s in Shanghai th e L o tie n INTERVIEW WITH CHU TEH, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE CHINESE EIGHTH ROUTE ARMY B y , H e a d q u a rte rs o f th e E ig h th AGNES S M E D L E Y R o u te A rm y North Shansi, October 24, 1937 condition along the North Shansi battlefront was discussed in an informal way today by Chu Teh, Commander-in-Chief of the Eighth Route Army, at the headquarters of this Army in North Shansi. The Japanese have not very strong resist ance along the three northern railways of China —the Tinghan, Tsinpu and Peiping-Suiyuan line,— Chu Teh said. They have been able to roll over the Chinese troops pretty much as they liked, and because of this they have thought they could carry out their old plans for the enslavement of China. Their general plans are quite well known, and are very old. They have long had in their service many leading men as traitors, and a small army of small traitors. “ It was only after the Eighth Route Army came to the Front that the situation has changed,” Chu Teh said. “ The Eighth Route Army has had a long succession of victories at many places in North Shansi and, recently, in western Hopei. These victories have changed the whole spirit of the other Chinese armies and of the Chinese people, so that the Japanese have begun to meet with strong resistance. The Eighth Route Army had shown the Kuomintang armies and the people that the Chinese can really fight the Japanese and be victorious. The Chinese people have felt themselves help less before Japanese airplanes, but here in this mountainous territory of North Shansi, these airplanes, as well as their fieldpieces, are almost useless. Here in the north they cannot use their big guns, and our tactics negate damage from airplanes. Here the invading enemy must fight with rifles and in hand-to-hand battles with the Eighth Route Army. In this they are weak, and they fear hand-to-hand battles above all else. u The Japanese have tried to scare foreign powers by saying the Eighth Route Army is marching across North China to the sea. To this I must say that it will not be so very easy for us to occupy Peiping and Tientsin just at this moment. B ut our army can do this even though the Japanese occupy them. We can continue to fight and be victorious even if the T h e 2 Japanese occupy all the big cities and the main railway lines. We can carry on our fight and our work at all times and in all places because we fight by partisan warfare. Even if the enemy should succeed in occupying all North China, we can continue our fight. The Japanese will never dare leave the big cities and go into the country, for they will be destroyed. We can always organize the people, arm them for struggle, and build our strength and the strength of the whole anti-Japanese struggle, on the masses of the people. We have done this here in North. Shansi. The Kuomintang has no force in these places, and so we can organize the people along the entire front and in the rear of the enemy. We have already organized, trained and armed thousands of them to conduct partisan warfare, and we have hardly begun yet. We are capturing arms and ammunition from the Japanese and using these to arm the people. General Yen Hsi-shan has also given us rifles for the people. “ The problem of whether we can save Shansi Province, and the city of Taiyuanfu, from the enemy, must be analyzed from many viewpoints. On the northern front the enemy is in a bad situation at present because our partisan groups are in their rear, cutting all their communications, capturing all their supplies. The enemy must now use airplanes to transport food and ammunition to their troops, but such transport is limited. They cannot transport many things by such means. “ Our partisan groups have killed more Japanese in the rear than have been killed on most fronts. Apart from Pinghsingkwan, where we killed nearly two thousand in one battle, we have killed from three to four thousand more. Many more have been wounded. This is easy work for us, and in it we have not even lost a thousand men. The Japanese come rolling along on motor trucks, unprepared to fight. At the front it is not such easy work, for the Japanese can use fieldpieces and airplanes against the Kuomintang armies which continue to fight by positional warfare, ■> “ On October 18th, at Yenmenkwan, our partisan units just scored another victory. Two companies of them attacked the enemy airdrome 10 T H E M OD ERN R E V IE W FO R JA N U A R Y, 1938 and destroyed twenty-one airplanes. I t was 30,000 of them, they have only 5,000 to 6,000 night and our men did not see the three addi who can fight in hand-to-hand battles. This tional planes. So these three escaped. We is their weakpoint. Their ammunition and used hand grenades to destroy them. Since arms are better than ours, however. B ut their then the enemy has had a hard time with their use is conditional. In order to use them, they airplanes. They have sent about eight here, must have roads and railways, gasoline and oil. but these fly over from Paotingfu in Hopei, and They must also have many, many people to return after bombing. transport these things. If we cut their roads “ Our Army attacks the rear of the Japanese and kill their transporters, there is no help for ceaselessly. We have now completely cut them them. We do not understand why the off from the rear so that they are" unable to Kuomintang armies cannot learn this fact, why get reinforcements or supplies of any kind they cannot learn our tactics. The Kuomintang except the limited quantities sent by air. armies insist on sticking to tactics that can Because we have cut them off from the rear, result in nothing but defeat for them. the 40,000 to 50,000 of them fighting in the “ The Kuomintang could also use our Sinkow region (180 li north of Taiyuanfu) can tactics, but they would have to change the not retreat, but must fight forward desperately. elements in the army. Only revolutionary They must attack a t the front, and so they elements can use partisan warfare with success. have had heavy losses in the last week. If soldiers who are not revolutionary, go out in Because of this situation, our northern front is small groups without their officers, they merely not in a very bad condition. Our Eighth Route turn bandit and loot and rape. The one and Army will not retreat. only condition for partisan warfare is that the f However, .\th e . defence of Taiyuanfu troops >must be imbued with anti-Japanese depends on the eastern front. If that front can revolutionary spirit. B ut if, in fighting, the hold, then Taiyuanfu is saved. If not, then it generals run away and the soldiers retreat in is in a dangerous position. The situation on small groups and continue to fight, it is quite both the Tsinpu and Pinghan railways is, we certain that only the most revolutionary know, very serious. A t Ningtsiangkwan, the elements among the soldiers will continue the pass on the railway line leading from Hopei up struggle. Such men, if brought under our to Taiyuanfu, is also serious. If the enemy is leadership, can be a great force leading to victorious there, they .can attack us along from victory. & the eastern, southwestern and southern fronts. io o n n ^ enerai X en. •^•^■■shan gave our army In such a way they can encircle Taiyuanfu. 10,000 men to tram , but for some unknown “ General Yen Shih-shan has just ordered reason he called them back after ten days and our 129th Division, commanded by Liu Pehsent them to another front. Under the com cheng, to Ningtsiangkwan, where they are to mand of the Eighth Route Army, General Yen fight by positional warfare. This is not at all Hsi-shans army could also fight and be good for our troops. Our troops are relatively victorious over the Japanese. The soldiers few> in number, and positional warfare is were enthusiastic. So it is not the soldiers who suicidal for us. The Japanese also are very cannot fight. I t is the Generals.” much afraid of partisan warfare. They can fight only by positional warfare. No Japanese r . When asked if the Nanking Government had given the Eighth Route Army arms and small groups dare attempt partisan warfare. ammunition before this army went to the front, They would be wiped out by the people. U rn Teh remarked that Nanking gave them Wherever they go, they must move in large no arms a t all. They gave some b u E groups. Cavalry escort the infantry, and tanks however, but most of their arms and ammuni escort their motor cars. B ut we have destroyed tion they have had to capture from the them despite this, capturing their tanks and apanese. General Yen Hsi-shan gave them motor cars. They now openly threaten to use some guns, though few. The medical supplie« poison gas against us. B u t we are not afraid were sufficient for only a couple of w eeks/but of th at either* W e are not afraid of their were supposed to be for three months airplanes, their tanks, field guns, or their poison h« l us almost nothing,” gas. Our tactics are such th at none of these Phi, t ! S&ldJ the Japanese have incan cause much damage to us. voluntarily and unwillingly given us a lot.” “ We have learned certain things about this When asked what he considered the strong enemy. They always use a division a t least, re lied ^ k P° m^s ^be J aPanese, Chu Teh m lighting positional warfare, and they depend on big guns, tanks, airplanes, etc. In every Our experience in fighting the Japanese es F IV E MONTHS IN T H E “ STATES ” ) 6,000 This n and t their t, they nd oil. pie to roads ¡Ip for the I why intang t can s our e the onary ccess. mt in lerely i and .t the anese , the at in quite »nary i the our g to ' * » *- irmy lown and 11 enable me to list these. The six strong points defence works. (3) Because they are relatively of the Japanese are, in my estimation, as few in comparison with our people, their in telligence service works slowly. They also have follows : the belief th at the Chinese can be easily u 1. Their weapons of war are stronger defeated, so they work slowly. (4) Another than ours, a!nd they can use them weakness is their inability to climb mountains well. as we can. (5) One of their main weaknesses 2. They can keep their military plans also is their fear of hand-to-hand battles.” secret. In discussing these points, Chu Teh said 3. They do not surrender their guns, but that a majority of the wounded of the Eighth fight until killed. But for this there Route Army were wounded in hand-to-hand are definite reasons. They do not battles. Without heavy weapons of war, the surrender their guns out of fear of Eighth Route Army partisan units fall upon death. They have salughtered so the enemy in hand-to-hand battles of life and many of our people, and they are death. Most of the Japanese they have killed engaged in such a savage task of have been killed by hand, though at the famous conquering our country, that they Pinghsiangkwan battle about five hundred of believe we will kill them when we the Japanese were killed with hand grenades. take them captive. They also believe In some battles, the Eighth Route Army have the propaganda of their officers that used hand grenades as clubs to beat in the Chinese kill all captives. There is brains of the Japanese. In the many peasant also in some of the divisions the spirit partisan units recently trained and armed, there „ of Bushido. are only about fifteen to twenty rifles in a group 4. They can act according to their plans. of a hundred, while the rest are armed with 5. When they retreat, they can retreat hand grenades. These serve a douple purpose more quickly than the Chinese can. 6. They can bring in reinforcements —to hurl at a distance, or as clubs in close encounters. Y e t with all the hand-to-hand quickly. fighting of the Eighth Route Army, Chu Teh “ Their weakpoints are as follows : says that the Japanese have not captured one “ (1) Their war spirit is very low a t present, man of his army. Chinese soldiers from other especially among the rank and file soldiers. armies who are captured, are killed without (2) Their soldiers also do not want to build exception. 3om - Yen . ¿e iiers who > FIVE MONTHS IN THE “ STATES ” nent and B y lets, unithe hem »lies but ig ” inong reh iese steamer left Liverpool in the afternoon, but in February, 4 o’clock in England is practically evening. After dinner we entered the British Channel from the Mersey, and almost immediately after I went to my bed and fell asleep. A t about midnight I woke to find th at the ship was not moving. We were at anchor, as I found next morning, in the Queen’s Town Harbour in Ireland, where she had to take the overnight mail from London. After lunch it sailed again and entered the high seas. The Atlantic is always more or less boister ous; in the winter it is particularly so. And I soon found myself in the throes of sea-sick M y j ¡rs B E P IN CHANDRA PA L ness, which forced me to keep to my cabin, which meant practically to my bed, until I smelt American soil after passing the Statue of Liberty a t the mouth of the Hudson. One incident of my life on board the steamer deserves mention. In those days it used to take about a week to reach New York from Liverpool. About the middle of the week the steward of my cabin came with a present of fruits from a fellow passenger, a lady, who asked me to put my hand out so th a t she might be sure th at I had received her gift. She sent me her gift with a friendly greeting— a greeting to a countryman of Swami Vivekananda’s from an THE CHINESE PEOPLE ARM THEMSELVES B y AGNES S M E D L E Y controlled by the Japanese, so it %as not a con Japanese imperialist army, equipped with cession of much value. B u t the Eighth Route all the mechanized forces of mass slaughter, has Army took the offer gladly.. They ftere already been proudly rolling forward over North China, in the rear of one of the main Japanese positions mowing down the Chinese armies as a threshing (Sinkow and Yuanping), while the other mam machine mows down wheat. Not only have Japanese line was along the Peiping-Suiyuan they moved steadily southward over Hopei railway to the north. Between these two battle Province, slaughtering the Chinese armies, but lines of the enemy the Eighth Route Army, had the masses of the Chinese people have stood penetrated and had begun guerilla warfare on a helplessly, their arms hanging by their side, and huge scale, their forces split up into small units watched them roll. I t was the same along the whole north-western front also until the latter and operating from the western border of Shansi right to the east and over into Hopei part of September. The tide began to be turned, at least to Province to the Pinghan railway, then south ward and all around the Sinkow-Yuanpmg some extent, when the famous Eighth Route Army— formerly the Chinese Workers and positions and, a little later, right up into Chahar Peasants Red Army— reached the battle froht Province. They later knocked a t the walls of of North Shansi Province. In the famous Tatung, but that is a campaign to be waged a t ... • ' battle at Pinghsiangkwan, a strategic pass on a later date. I t was in late October th at I, the writer of the Great Wall commanding one of the routes southward to the city of Taiyuanfu, the Shansi this article, talked with the body of men known capital, the Eighth Route Army dealt the as the General Mobilization Committee for, the Japanese the first staggering blow they had Front, in Taiyuanfu, the capital. A t th a t time, received from any Chinese army of the north this Committee, was in charge of the general and north-west. In a series of swift flanking work of mobilizing and arming the people, in movements, the Eighth Route smashed the thirty hsien, or districts, of northern Shansi. Japanese a t Pinghsiangkwan, killing from two These hsien extend in a zig-zag line across northern Shansi, even a little below Taiyuanfu, to three thousand of them. With this battle as a lever, and with their but not taking in Taiyuanfu hsien itself. The whole sincerity of purpose, a representative of Committee had also just extended its work to the Eighth Route Army and an official repre Suiyuan and Chahar Provinces, and to every sentative of the Chinese Communist P arty , region in Shansi occupied or threatened by the talked with General Yen Hsi-shan, Governor of Japanese. The M ass Mobilization Committee Shansi Province and commander-in-chief of the consists of twenty-nine men, as follows : 4 from north-western armies. These Communist repre the Eighth Route Army, 5 from Shansi Pro sentatives, one military and one civilian, argued vince, 5 from Suiyuan, and 5 from Chahar th at the salvation of China from subjection is Provinces. Apart from this, each Army fight the business of the entire Chinese people, and if ing in the north or north-west has one represen # •: . the people are not mobilized and armed, China tative. The Committee is divided into six cannot be victorious. The Chinese armies, however vast, have not the equipment to match committees a t p resen t: Organization, Propa the huge war machine of the Japanese. The ganda, Organizing and Arming the people, the entire people and the national resources of Department to Eliminate Traitors, the Depart ment for the Distribution of W ork, and the China must be mobilized, they argued. A t th at time the Central Government at General Department. With two Chinese news Nanking did not permit the mobilization and paper men, I talked with four members of the arming of the people. B ut General Yen agreed General Mobilization Committee about their to some extent with the Eighth Route Army and work. They spoke as follows : Communist P arty representative, and gave them “ O u r d u ty i s to c a r r y o u t o u r a n ti-Ja p a n e s e p o lic y , the right to mobilize and arm all the people near a n d o u r c h i e f w o r k i s t h e m o b i l i z i n g a n d a r m i n g o f t h e the battle front. This territory, was largely m e n i n t o p a r t i s a n g r o u p s f o r p a r t i s a n w a r f a r e . I n p l a c e s T h e 18—2 I T H E M ODERN R E V IE W FO R F E B R U A R Y , 1938 134 u nd er th e Ja p a n e s e m e th o d s c o n tro lle d th e by w o rk is r e a liz e d . to c o n tro lle d ca rry on can by le s s ly hunt by d e v o te of m e th o d s , p a r tis a n th e tra ito r s . W e in T a iy u a n fu , tiw o h u n d re d m en to th e a n o th e r in th e and A p a rt th ir ty h s ie n , tr a in in g th e we re a r of of tw o g rou p fro m a and th is , we le c tu r in g p e o p le . th e and soon th e as rig h t, to ev ery to m en th e s h a ll o th e r “ H ere in C e n tra l we ju s t p la c e in in o th e r p la c e s P o litic a l tr a in in g tim e as th e y h ere in T a iy u a n fu fro m th e our by ra p id ity . In A rm y . S e lf to are w h ereas th e Ja p a n ese at and th e th e to a c tu a l w h o le g a th e r new s a ls o , as w e ll as fro n t “ The our th e th e ir enem y o r g a n iz a tio n , p e o p le to th is and w o rk p r in c ip le s of th e m th e to fo r or we do W e p o o rest lo c a l m en a ls o . one The th e enem y a ll th e o r g a n iz e d do in is m en, a g a in s t are and th e th e and a r m ie s , is to sam e rea r of a tta c k in g of co u rse, p a r tis a n s do h ara ss im p o r ta n t w o rk am on gst are c h ie fly th e p o o rest m en . fo r a day ric h s u p p ly w o rk tr a ito r s p o w er, d o lla r o f th e an th a t and and tr a ito r s n e a r ly you nger p e o p le c o n s c io u s n e s s , M any are or c o n s ta n t fin d r u ffia n s — w o r k get g iv e r e p o r t s . w iv e s m oney n a tio n a l th e it a lo n e th e ir tra n s p o r t fo rc e s . o f tw o k in d s — th e r ic h e s t m e n r ic h e s t b u s in e s s d is o r d e r o f tra ito r s end. and v illa g e W u ta i-h s ie n th e th e tra in e d p a r tis a n s w h ereas of o r g a n iz e d fig h te r s re g u la r and dow n rea r E ig h th , R o u te c o m m u n ic a tio n s , The fig h tin g , h u n tin g th e w h o se about The c r e a tin g u n its . m o re great They are a r m ie s . are w ith th e o ld e r , of con goes in In The our re a r o f th e are m ass r e g io n s a lre a d y m en s o ld ie r s th e th e re w o rk have sam e v o lu n te e r s and In A rm y , a rm s. th e Our r e g io n s , have th e m at s tu d e n ts, fro n t. to tra n sp o rt w eeks. p a r tis a n s fro m of tra in in g th e o r g a n iz e d . of p a r tis a n s th e w e e k ’s th o u g h a ls o w ith o p e ra te . tw o th e we us and g e n e r a lly o f W u ta i, W e g iv e s Sh an si is com e a lr e a d y it heavy th e h s ie n a ll m any e n e m y , •c u t t i n g th e ir of one A s s o c ia tio n s , tr a in e d w o rk , and 800 and a ll p e a sa n ts . R o u te tw e n ty h ere, o th e r E ig h th th e ir v illa g e s p e a sa n ts tra n s m it In a r m in g enough c h ie fly are p a r tis a n s . D e fe n c e d e fe n d th e re w ere W u ta i-h s ie n 1 ,5 0 0 to m ilita r y -t r a in in g . w o rk e rs In g iv e n e ls e w h e r e , th e our a rm ed a ls o and re p o r t ju s t n o w . one is u nd er began le g a lly but That a r m ie s . th e th a n enem y as v o lu n te e r s p a r tis a n s gave tr a in in g re c e iv e p a r tis a n tro lle d we m ay sen t s h a ll ev ery w h ere N a n k in g w o rk we ta c tic s . th e re g u la r our w h ere T a iy u a n , p a r tis a n to sch o o l now o r g a n iz in g G o v e rn m e n t in e x te n d a ls o ru th W e w o rk e rs w o rk W e ju s t enem y. d a y s a g o , so w e d o n o t h a v e so m u c h As have we we tra in in g h u n d re d , have Our and o p e n ly but w a rfa re . have o th e r r e g io n s q u ite b a ttle fie ld , h ere sen d in In v a r ie ty p a r tis a n s soon w h ile n a tu re . can fo r tr a in in g . in fu lly e n tir e ly we fo r fo r be o u r s e lv e s w a rfa re , but p la c e s r e g io n s cannot a r m ie s , a m en w o rk , th o se o c c u p ie d p la n b ro a d er ow n w o rk ers dow n we fro m In our p a r tis a n our tra in f ir s t-a id a r m ie s . m u ch p ro p ag an d a o p e n ly tr a in is c o n tin u e co u rse, and r e g io n s fo r w o rk s till of C h in e s e m en our we d iffe r , d iffic u lt, th o se tra in in g s till th e v e ry In re g io n s o c c u p a tio n , o f w o rk and th e fro m The w ith o u t p o o re s t, m oney. tr a ito r s th e are m any S o m e tim e s th e Ja p a n e se have Ja p a n e se Ja p a n e se w ith in f o r m a tio n o f o u r a r m ie s a n d p la n s , a n d t h e y g iv e J a p a n e s e a ir p la n e be s ig n a ls by w h ic h bom bed. “ O u r p rop ag an d a th irty h s ie n , in c o lle c t fu n d s, th e w ounded. th e re fu g e e s p ass, th e m T h is th is fro m and c o m m itte e s o ld ie r s by in th e a ls o to w ar zon es. p e o p le and h e lp s le tte r s is to th e fo r a a ll w ounded M ost p e o p le , h e lp to h e lp th e and th e and w ounded th e m , th e ir to They th e s e c tio n h e lp ch an ge th e m . to tra n s p o rt W h ere to to p rop ag an d a. k n o w le d g e d e p a rtm e n t p o s itio n s sen t m en do p e o p le sen d s fo o d , w r itin g th e lo c a te has to p o litic a l th is c o m m itte e w a te r g ro u p s, o r g a n iz e In can c o m m itte e s m a ll le c tu r e , g iv e le s s o n s th e y to g iv e ban d ages. th e of our o th e r p e o p le are u n fo rtu n a te ly p o r ta n t our s e r v ic e . w o rk , and v e r y ’ g la d lo d g in g , but to s till illite r a te , M any d e v o te do beyond re fu g e e s th e ir th is . th is e n tir e They and th is th e m s e lv e s tim e re c e iv e to is an have it. th e ir im e n te re d . .T h e y fo o d a re and n o th in g .” Later on, the two Chinese newspaper men and I went to Wutai-hsien, a district in the mountains between the two lines of the Japanese. Here the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army was for a time located. In one town through which we passed, we were put up for the night by the Mass Mobilization Com mittee. They were young, cheerful and even enthusiastic men from the Eighth Route Army, whose special work was the organizing and training and arming of partisans. They verified what the general committee of their organiza tion had told us in Taiyuanfu. They had about 1,500 organized partisans under training so far. But, unfortunately, they have only about 50 per cent enough arms. In groups of 100 men, there were 50 rifles only, all of them given by General Yen Hsi-shan, though some were captured from the Japanese. From this village alone, two groups of partisans had been sent to harass the rear of the enemy. The men without rifles all carried hand-grenades, but they did not have sufficient hand-grenades. So each man carried only five or six. The main problem is arms. The men are willing enough to be armed and only too willing to fight. But the problem of guns is an urgent one. From this town, which had been repeatedly bombed by the Japanese, we went into the Wutai mountains, to the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army. There we found the partisans have their own big headquarters where they receive political military training. We watched the training of about a hundred new volunteers, and talked with the local Mobilization Committee. This local committee consisted of seven men, all of them from the local population, and all except one peasants. The oldest member was 73 years of age. He was a tall, handsome and even picturesque old peasant who proudly led us into the fields where new volunteers were being trained. He proudly introduced us to them. A man from the Eighth Route Army was patiently training a group of volunteers, helped by a local civilian. We took pictures of them, and some of them stood very straight and stern. One little fellow was only thirteen, and he was so conscious of it th at he was especially severe in his bearing. Then up stepped an old man sixty-five years of age and asked th at he be photographed. He was a member of the village Self-Defence Corps, and this Corps had just made their own khaki 1/ * . n v , , . > ' * ^ uniforms him stoo of the pj We they tra Here we farmers farmers lanky, \ such as pictured • lanky : apples poorest tall in 1 were st< certain more t Straight they kn super-h the moa evening under t had a The ot just cc could : shoutin amblin clad fe would perhap the rej the pa their u units. I remain '■ T1 a me was a eager along. Comm He cc ' seven a poo teers, people ‘ done they If the all, b) he sa famili ward, their Then T H E C H IN ESE P E O P L E ARM TH EM SELV ES 135 He is thirty-five years of age and he is already miforms. Was the old man proud ! Around fighting the enemy. I would like to -call him lim stood the young men in the gray uniforms back and send him to protect you, because you jf the partisans, proud of the^r village. are a foreign friend of ours. I t is a great We took photographs of the partisans as they trained in the late afternoon each day. In the last few days of October and in Here we saw these tall, strong, north Chinese early November, the general headquarters of farmers who so reminded me of American the Eighth Route Army marched from north farmers at times. Some of them were long an Shansi down to eastern Shansi to the eastern lanky, with moustaches, and with long necks front I went with them. W e passed through such as so many poor farmers of America are villages where the Mobilization Committee had pictured. There was something about their its representatives. In one town there were lanky frames and their protruding Adams hundreds of Eighth Route Army wounded all apples th at was typical of farmers of the being nursed by the local population There poorest class everywhere. They are also very was8 but one trained nurse to care for the tall in North China. Some of the younger men hundreds. The people had brought their own were stocky and as strong as bulls and it was and often only quilted quilts ^ the certain that all of them would give the Japanese wounded. They were proud and eager to help. more than one bellyful of shot and^ shell. Everywhere we saw the slogans put up by local Straight from their ploughing or their hoeing, partisan organizations on walls and tr e e s : they know the meaning of hard labor and almost “ Every good man into the partisans . ^Ur, super-human endurance. They trained with “ Every good man get ready for the front! the most intense seriousness and patience. One One night in a village, at about nine o clock, evening we watched a unit of about a hundred we heard a big tin pan being beaten m the under training. Half of them carried rifles and had already received considerable training. streets. I t halted at the gate of our courtyard and the voice of a man shouted twice : All The other half were new Volunteers who had partisans come out to the grove !” Two rooms just come in that day. The new Volunteers in our courtyard were thrown open a second could not keep step, even with the constant later and two peasant men of the household, shouting. I t was interesting to watch the ambling gait of the peasant, with his heavily carrying rifles, went silently out oi the gate. When we crossed the Chentai railway line, clad feet. But before the week would pass he and marched to the south of it, we entered a would be able to lift his feet rapidly, and perhaps before a year is passed he will be in region in which the Eighth Route Army has just come. This is a region in which the the regular Eighth Route Army. For some of Mobilization Committee has only now received the partisans go over into the Army—that is, their units are transformed into regular military the right to mobilize and arm the people. We spent the night in villages where there were no units. B ut up to now they are not. They partisans at all and where the people had never remain farmers and fighters. The old man, 73 years of age, who was heard of the Eighth Route Army. The women a member of the Mobilization Committee had all fled ! If we remained for two nights even— which was often the case— the people came was a remarkable old fellow. He was very eager and proud and he talked as we walked streaming back. The women and girls, with along. He was the treasurer. of the local children, would come. I talked with some men Committee. He collected and disbursed funds. and women who had fled from their villages He could read and write a little. He owed when they heard an army was coming. They had fled 100 li away— over 30 miles. Then seven mou of land— about 1 ^ acre, so he was a poor peasant. He did recruiting of volun they heard th at the Eighth Route Army had come, and that it was a revolutionary army of teers, he said. He would go to the homes of the the people, w7ho protected and organized the people and tell them what the Japanese have people. They picked up their pitiful bundles done in every place they have occupied— how and their padded quilts and came home. They they have killed the people, looted and raped. sent delegations to the headquarters of the If the Japanese come, the people cannot live at Eighth Route Army and asked them to leave all but will be homeless slaves, he argued. No, men behind to protect and tell them what to do. h e’ said, he met no opposition a t all from the In all these, villages south of the Chentai rail families with sons. The women are still back way the Army headquarters left behind two ward, but they also raise no objection, but urge armed men whose business it was to organize their sons to go. How proud the old man was. local Mobilization Committees, organize and Then he added : “ M y own son is a partisan. T H E M ODERN R E V IE W FO R F E B R U A R Y , 1938 136 arm the people. Small bands of roaming defeated troops who rob and rape are to be talked to and argued with and re-educated if possible. If not, to be imprisoned. And if they do not learn sincerely, to be shot. In some villages, the people ran to the Eighth Route headquarters to tell of such men, and to ask for their arrest. The Headquarters sent armed men and arrested the looters. One night one such arrested man, an officer from Szechuen troops, was housed in a room in a courtyard right across from mine. He had thrown away his military imiform, and robbed clothing of the common people. But, stupidly enough, he had kept his army papers. Chu Teh, commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army, is very enthusiastic. When he speaks of the “ lao pei shin”—that is, the common people— his voice softens and his face becomes tender. “ The lao pei shin— ah, what people!” he says softly, turning his head away. Then, with gleaming eyes, he said to us : “ We have already organized -5,000 men into the partisans in North Shansi alone. Give us one more month, and we will have from 20,000 to 30,000 partisans in that region. Give us another month here on the eastern front, and the Japanese will be destroyed.” Arms I Arms 1 ! Arms ! ! ! Arms for the people ! Arms for the lao pei shin! The Eighth Route Army bases its strength on the strength of the people. We move for hundreds of miles, right within two or three miles of the enemy lines, and the people never betray us 1 They come streaming home, come to their protectors, and come saying : “ Leave men to tell us what to do !” The Eighth Route Army is telling them. As Chu Teh said, calmly and smilingly, “ even if the Japanese occupy Tqiyuan or other big cities, it will not matter. We will destroy them. We will organize and arm the people and every man, woman and child, will destroy them.” „ Days of W arfare F rom M y Diary November S, 1937.— The battle of yesterday has ended with the Chinese troops retreating from their positions a t Yangchuen and retreat ing to Chang Chin Chen further west on the Chentai railway. The chief concentration of the Japanese is now a t Pintingchow, about halfway from Niangshihkwan to Tiyuanfu. I talked with Chu Teh, commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army. He was perfectly cheerful, perfectly calm. The defeat of the Chinese troops (not the Eighth Route) yester day did not mean much, he said. “ If the Japanese want tc march on toward Taiyuanfu, let them,” he said. “ It does not matter. This should be the tactics of the Kuomintang, instead of their present positional warfare. If they do this, and adopt the tactics of the Eighth Route Army, the Japanese can be .defeated. We will then cut off their rear, destroy all their commu nications, split them up in small groups and destroy them. The enemy advanced today, but the Kuomintang troops need not have retreated. Instead, they must change their tactics. Then it will not matter if the Japanese advance. The Chinese forces are much more than the Japanese, and we can surround them on all sides. The Chinese troops are novf concentra ted at Showyang.” D ay before yesterday we crossed the rail way tracks at Showyang. Yesterday, through out the day, six Japanese bombers simply “ scraped the skies ”, so to speak, in search of the newly-arrived Eighth Route Army. They know we have come, but they do not know where. But already two of the units of the Eighth Route have attacked their flanks at Yanchuen, while Liu Peh-chen, commanding another force down on the Shansi-Hopei border, has destroyed the Chentai railway for a long distance. It will take the Japanese a long time to repair it, and then it will be cut again either there or in a dozen other places. We have reports that the Japanese troops are very tired. T hat means little. They are obedient soldiers, and they will march on. Now, with the Eighth Route od both sides of the Chentai railway in their rear, they will have to march on. They dare not retreat. The Eighth Route Army is at work with its famous flanking and rear attacks. The Japanese are moving in Shansi province on this eastern front from three different direc tions now— along the railway, which is now cut and where the Eighth Route is harassing their flanks and rear; from Pintingchow they have sent out four regiments to the south-west; and they have sent two full regiments— about 6,000 men— along a road, some 50 li south of the railway on the border, to Yangchuen. So they are driving in toJhejupyince by the roads also. At Tupgfingtow, a strategic/nountain near Yangchuen, Chen Ken, Eighth Route Army commands^ comm au d s^ a force of strong CommunistYroopsTand has just built defences. He has just arrived there. An Eighth Route unit, commanded by Chen Kwen, a Hunan peasant military leader, arrived at the mountain range, M before yes enemy trc battle co; Communii enemy an Day Army, an Communi manifesto upon the waging at are enem people. < ment, of eagerly t festoes o only a fe Well Eighth R this am Eighth I the raibw side also a pincer ■cutting-c -know it |yesterday ■of the but hav« have not manifest On glad ! Route A -eastern : to take tion poi] Governn forces, b thought ammuni down 7( with sh supplies trucks, of Ho 1 sans, fe brick, grenade' ing, and roads, killed, his dc quantit: two ligl other s 136 T H E M OD ERN R E V IE W FO R F E B R U A R Y , 1938 arm the people.' Small bands of roaming defeated troops who rob and rape ajre to be talked to and argued with and re-educated if possible. If not, to be imprisoned.! And if they do not learn sincerely, to be shot. rder, long time dther have tired, diers, ighth iy in They iy is rear vince lirecnow ssing they vest; ibout h of j So oads, near ^rmy trong nces. toute unan atain 11 137 mined the earth and destroyed two enemy trucks range, Mataling, south of Pinhngchow, day 2. .. , , , before yesterday and met the four regiments of on November The town of Whenyuan, which has changed enemy troops coming from that direction, ln e hands a number of times, has been taken back battle continued all day yesterday, and the by the Eighth Route Army once more That Communist forces killed about 1,000 of the is on the northern front, outside the Great Wall. enemy and captured supplies. -6 It was recaptured from the Japanese on Novem D ay before yesterday the Eighth Route ber 1st, and a number of enemy soldiers killed. Army, and also the Central Committee of the The Chinese forces still hold the Japanese Communist Party of China, issued separate at Sinkow. There is no change in the Smkow manifestoes to the Japanese soldiers, calling situation. The enemy hopes to break through upon them to cease the robber war they are the Eighth Route forces now holding the north, waging at the commands of their militarists who and get reinforcements to their troops at are enemies of both the Chinese and Japanese Sinkow so they can advance to Taiyuaniu. people. Chinese fliers from the Central Govern We are now a t a small village south of the ment, of whom there are a few in this region, railway, and some 65 li from the place we were eagerly took to the air and dropped the mani yesterday. We were told to be prepared to festoes over the Japanese linesv But we have march at midnight to this place. W e Prepared only a few airplanes in this region. g u t the manager of our group ^ f determined Well, the Japanese know at last that the to get at the Japanese, it seems, th at he awoke Eighth Route Army is in this region. They felt us at 10, just three hours after we had gone to this army yesterday. They know th at the bed I argued that it was not twelve, but he Eighth Route is not only here on the south of argued that my watch was wrong, and so we got the railway line, but that it is on the northern upS and prepared. B y eleven o clock we were side also, and is closing in on their rear with ready to march. Headquarters had not even a pincer movement. They know it by the arisen 1 One hour later the bugle ca ll awoke cutting of the railway in their rear, and they them, and later their breakfast bugle call know it because 1,000 of them lay dead after sounded, and then later still the bugle to prepare yesterday?s battle. They know it because some to march. I t was two o clock when the bugle o f the Chinese troops have not retreated, call for marching sounded 1 And the last hour but have met them in merciless warfare and we spent standing amongst the animals ana have not retreated. They know it from the two lines of men on a road beyond the village. manifestoes. There was a hell of a noise, as usual, with the On the northern front, were the Japanese braying of donkeys and mules, the neighing and glad ! They were so happy that the Eighth stamping of horses, and the shouts of men, with Route Army had left the northern front for the men cheering up everyone by singing. But «astern front— so they thought-r-that they tried when we began to march, silence fell upon us to take supplies down to their main concentra all and all we could hear was the clank of hoofs tion point at Sinkow, where Shansi and Central on’ the stony and treacherous and narrow Government troops are holding their mam mountain paths. The little hsiao kweys, given forces, bombarding them each day. The enemy to all kinds of laughter and pranks, whispered thought they could at last send shells and ammunition through to Sinkow* So they sent lest the Japs, some three to four miles away down 70 to 80 military trucks, heavily laden hear them i No one talked. The order came with shells and other ammunition, and also to use no flash lights. W e marched by the faint supplies. And 200 of their soldiers rode on the light of the stars. I watched the great dipper trucks, bowling along like gentlemen. A unit over my shoulder to the left, and the polar star of Ho Lung’s troops, helped by peasant parti below it. Sometimes it was directly to my left, sometimes a bit behind me. As we advanced, sans, fell upon the trucks like a few tons of brick. They stopped six of them with hand- our eyes became used to the darkness. The paths down which we went were so grenades, and destroyed 10 of them in the fight terrible th at I dared not ride. So with my two ing, and stopped the whole lot by destroying the guards on either side of me, I went dowmand up, roads. The 200 Japanese soldiers were all down into stony riverbeds through which icy killed. Among them was a company officer and rivers tumbled, then up terrible stony paths his deputy. The Chinese forces got large quantities of arms and ammunition, including again, and down again. And so through whole night. Dark mountain sides loomed p two light machine guns, rifles, pistols, and many either side. Now and then there was the quick other supplies. The Japanese tried advancing flash of a flashlight, as suddenly turned off, as the alone another route. «An army partisan route 137 T H E C H IN ESE P E O P L E A RM T H EM SELV ES mined the earth and destroyed two enemy trucks range. Mataling, south of Pmlingchow, day 2. . . . . , , before yesterday and met the four regiments of on November The town of Whenyuan, which has changed enemy troops coming from that direction. The hands a number of times, has been taken back battle continued all day yesterday, and th bv the Eighth Route Army once more. That Communist forces killed about 1,000 of the is on the northern front, outside the Great Wall. enemy and captured supplies. , It was recaptured from the Japanese on Novem Day before yesterday the Eighth Route ber 1st, and a number of enemy soldiers killed. Army, and also the Central Committee of the The Chinese forces still* hold the Japanese Communist Party of China, issued separate at Sinkow. There is no change in the Sinkow manifestoes to the Japanese soldiers, calling situation. The enemy hopes to break through upon them to cease the robber war they are the Eighth Route forces now holding the north, waging at the commands of their militarists who and get reinforcements to their troops at are enemies of both the Chinese and Japanese Sinkow so they can advance to Taiyuanfu. people. Chinese fliers from the Central Govern We are now at a small village south of the ment, of whom there are a few in this region, railway, and some 65 U from the place we were .eagerly took to the air and dropped the mani vesterday. We were told to be prepared to festoes over the Japanese lines. But we have march a t midnight to this place. We Prepared. only a few airplanes in this region. ^ B ut the manager of our group is so determined Well, the Japanese know at last that the to get at the Japanese, it seems, that he awose Eighth Route Army is in this region. They felt us at 10, just three hours alter we had gone to this army yesterday. They know that the bed I argued that it was not twelve, but he Eighth Route is not only here on the south oi argued that my watch was wrong, and so we got the railway line, but that it is on the northern up and prepared. B y eleven o clock we were side also, and is closing in on their rear with ready to march. Headquarters had not even a pincer movement. They know it by the arisen 1 One hour later the bugle call awoke ■cutting of the railway in their rear, and they them, and later .their breakfast^ bugle call know it because 1,000 of them lay dead after sounded, and then later still the bugle to Prepare yesterday’s battle. They know it because some to march. I t was two o’clock when the^bugle ,of the Chinese troops have not retreated, call for marching sounded 1 And the last hour but have met them in merciless warfare and we spent standing amongst the animals and have not retreated. They know it from the two lines of men on a road beyond the yilla^ge. manifestoes. if j . _ There was a hell of a noise, as usual, with the On the northern front, were the Japanese glad 1 They were so happy that the Eighth braying of donkeys and mules, the neighing and Route Army had left the northern front for the stamping of horses, and the shouts of men, with -eastern front— so they thought— that they tried men cheering up everyone by singing. But to take supplies down to their main concentra when we began to march, silence fell upon ^ tion point at Sinkow, where Shansi and Central all and all we could hear was the clank of hoofs stony and treacherous and narrow uiic owuj — -— mi „ Government troops are holding their main on the mountain paths. The little hsiao kweys, given forces, bombarding them each day. The enemy to all kinds of laughter and pranks, whispered thought they could at last send shells and ammunition through to Sinkow. So they sent lest the Japs, some three to four miles away down 70 to 80 military trucks, heavily laden hear them 1 No one talked. The order came with shells and other ammunition, and also to use no flash lights. We marched by the faint supplies. And 200 of their soldiers rode on the light of the stars. I watched the great dipper trucks, bowling along like gentlemen. A unit over my shoulder to the left, and the polar star of Ho Lung’s troops, helped by peasant parti below it. Sometimes it was directly to my left, sans, fell upon the trucks like a few tons ol sometimes a bit behind me. As we advanced, brick. They stopped six of them with hand- our eyes became used to the darkness. The paths down which we went were so grenades, and destroyed 10 of them in the fight terrible th at I dared not ride. So with my two ing, and stopped the whole lot by destroying the guards on either side of me, I went down and up, roads. The 200 Japanese soldiers were all killed. Among them was a company officer and down into stony riverbeds through which icy deputy. The Chinese forces got large rivers tumbled, then up terrible stony paths quantities of arms and ammunition, including again, and down again. And so through the two light machine guns, rifles, pistols, and many whole night. Dark mountain sides loomed on other supplies. The Japanese tried advancing either side. Now and then there was the quick along another route. An army partisan route flash of a flashlight, as suddenly turned off, as the Wm IPM as mmZ' T H E M ODERN R E V IE W FO R F E B R U A R Y , 1938 advance searched for the right path. We began to straggle in units after a few hours. Then we .watched the roadside for the bits of paper left to guide us. The bits of paper often a figure 30, 20, or 10 or such on them,—telling us how many more li we had to march. There were few or no bridges over the broad, icy rivers, and nearly everyone had wet feet. But they crossed without complaint and marched on and on. When the dawn came, many men were limping and all were weary. But they went on and on and I heard snatches of song. I was able to ride along the good stretches of road, and across the rivers. I at least kept my feet dry. ^ Later we saw that the skin of Li Po’s feet is split open down to the raw flesh, all along the soles. The long and hard marching, and the freezing water is the cause of this. But he has not com plained. He has walked more slowly at times, and, with a far-away look, has replied to my questions : “ I t does not matter.” In the darkness I lost track of my horse a number of times. But he found me. Two or three times I heard the low rumble that is a horse’s talk of satisfaction, and then his nose nudging me. I felt like throwing my arms around his neck each time. But when the dawn came, and I rode along level roads, I cursed him soundly. For he tried to tear up the earth u running after the women,” so to speak. There is in our column a little bay mare, jealously chaperoned by a boy about eighteen years of age. For this lady my Yunnan has conceived an affection. Her reply to his indelicate advances was to lift her hind legs and strike out at him in a way that belied her meek appear ance. But she carried a pack and it fell off. F o r my Yunnan responded to her attack by whirling around and trying to kick the stuffings out of her. It did not matter that I was on his back. Not in the le a s t! And now, that chaperoning guardian of the litjtle mare carries a club just for use against my Yunnan. I have almost fallen to sleep at times, but I was brought back to full consciousness by the glaring eyes and ferocious face of that lad coming toward my pony. Realizing thjat we are in for another fight, I turn around ajnd seek a more secure position in the column. There is an old Hindu book which, if I remember correctly, is something like the Karma Yoga. I t is a book telling of the ways and means of what we may ! call the “ manwoman business.” One passage in that book says, it is bad luck for a couple to become amorous at a cross-road. Bad luck, indeed ! I t is, instead, most dangerous. I thought of this book today. B ut, as the Victorian poets used to say, alas and alack, my Yunnan has not read the Karma Yoga. I t was nearing nine in the morning, when a small straggling group of us picked our way across a riverbed filled with stones that some one seems to have sharpened to knife-like edges. Before us lay the village which was to be our headquarters for a day. Then, from the east, coming up the valley around a mountain, we saw a long column of slow-moving soldiers. They moved slowly, wearily, as if they had marched all night. We halted and watched and I took some pictures. This was the Third Army, moving from a position where the Chinese troops have been defeated, to the west, where they are to be reorganized and fight again. They had no animals at all with them, but carried all their arms and ammunition. As they passed, voices amongst them cried out. Once we heard : u We have no overcoats ! We have no overcoats !” There were a few people in the village ahead of us watching from a stone wall. The weary soldiers seemed to be crying their complaints to the morning air, and to no one in particular. Then their commander gave an order, and it was shouted down the line from man to m a n : “ Order to r e s t ! Order to r e s t !” They marched on. The resting place had not yet come. Then came the strange cries again : “ We are tired I We are tired !” This is one of the best armies of the Central Government, I am told. They are good fighters.. They carried no packs on their backs, they had no overcoats. I wondered how they sleep, how they keep warm. B ut I could not find out. When they saw a foreign face their cries ceased and in astonishment they gazed at me, and some of them smiled and halted to have their pictures taken. We came into a village entirely deserted of women and girls, and of at least half of the men population. The people heard that troops were coming, and ran away. We found two empty rooms in the home of what appears to be a middle peasant house. Since three doors of th e^ mud and stone buildings were locked with iron Chinese locks and chains, we went into the two empty ones and occupied them. Later we found one peasant man who lives in one of the pad locked rooms. He told us we could live in the two rooms. His wife and daughter, who occupy the poor room, have fled with the other women to the mountains. He is a poor peasant, as are the other families th at live in the other rooms. The men returned and talked curiously with us. We tried to get them to bring their women back, but they are afraid of armies. I t will take another day or two for the Political Department / W9. 138 T H E C H IN ESE P E O P L E ARM TH EM SELV ES 139 writing paper, carbon paper, my camera, films, of headquarters to convince them that the and typing ribbons. I even had to give up my Eighth Route Army is not an ordinary army, first-aid medicines. My camp bed I give to the and that it is the protector of the people. The peasant here. The camp bed was a great thing women will be returning in another day or two, for me I could sleep alone, and it freed me ju st as they have at other places. And here we from the almost certainty of getting lice. For will leave men to organize and arm the people the k ’angs of the poor peasants often have lice into partisans, just as we have in other places. in them. And now I know L shall get lice. W e left two armed men in the village where we This morning, when we arrived here, I watched spent the two nights before this. This was the some of our armed forces sitting in doorways, request of the people, who sent a delegation to stripped to the waist, picking lice out of their our Military Headquarters. *■ coats. They already have them. Y et up to We leave here tomorrow morning for a new now they have been clean of them. Lice m position. . „ , north China in winter means typhus. Lice in I wonder at the Chinese people. Our only wartime is always a typhus danger. And 1 tear food is millet or rice, and one vegetable. To we face this very serious danger. F or northern day we had rice and turnips. Sometimes it is Chinese typhus does not generally mean death. squash, or potatoes. And on this we live. They are practically immune to it. B ut our There is no fat, no sugar, and for days no meat army is mostly of southern men, and I fear they at all. I have a little money left which 1 are in the same danger as foreigners from borrowed from a friend to prepare for ^this typhus— and that means death in 99 per cent march. So I am able to buy an occasiona of the cases. We cannot afford anti-typhus «chicken. My whole group of six eat it. This vaccine. I t costs $9.00 tor one injection series. gives us a little protein and a tiny bit of fat. The guards’ shoes are nearly worn out and they I have not received injections either. I tried it have no others. Nor can we buy anything. a year ago and nearly died of heart failure. There is absolutely nothing to buy. This region B ut still I cannot take my camp bed. From seems very, very poor. They have millet, now on I have one donkey, and my little mule, kaoliang and squash, and a few potatoes about to carry everything for my party of six. My as large as walnuts. Even the chickens are luggage is the heaviest. I t is typewriting and very few and very thin. We bought one today camera supplies. In these regions we cannot but it had no fat at all. We bought a squash buy any kind of paper whatever. Whatever we from the poor peasant. B ut there are many intend to use we must carry with us. Ldter : Today the two other peasants in ;armies in this region, and I wonder what the people will live on during the winter. We buy the locked rooms returned. One was a very •everything we take, but much of our rice is poor man. He came into our room and asked transported on donkeys and mules with us. I t politely and humbly for something. W e could is many days’ march over terrible roads to not understand his dialect a t all. Not one of Taiyuanfu, and the problem of feeding and us could understand. Finally he dared point at clothing an army during the winter months, in something and we saw it was an old rope this region, is almost unbelievably difficult. hanging on an inside door. He wanted his rope There are no motor roads— and no motor trucks. but he had been afraid to come and take it, or I t is almost impossible to find any man in these ask for it and point. For our guards are armed villages who has enough money to change one men ! And he has his experience with armed Chinese dollar. We could not change a dollar men ! How terrible it is. We laughed and to buy one chicken, but had to buy another gave him his rope. On his head was a bloody chicken this afternoon, a squash, and some corn cut, as if he had fallen. I disinfected it with for my horse and mule. For I am using the iodine and then he said he would of course pay. little money I have left to keep my horse and He made a gesture of payment and we mule in good condition. If either dies, I do not assured him that we did not want payment. know what I shall do. F or our future marching He watched us with suspicion— this strange, is very hard. I shall have to walk much of the strange army that gave back a man’s rope or time also. Today my two companions and I treated his injury free. Ten minutes later he stripped our luggage down to the barest essen came back and asked us to treat his injured tials. We each have the one suit we wear, our foot. It was useless. His foot is worn to the -winter coats, .an extra pair of socks or so, and flesh through a hole in his old cloth shoes. He we are rich in having one extra pair of shoes needs a new pair of shoes. And we have none which we bought in Sian. M y luggage consist« even for ourselves. One of m y guards took him almost entirely of my typewriter, my type to our doctor who bound up his foot and told T H E M OD ERN R EV IEW FO R F E B R U A R Y , 1938 !4 0 that is only the beginning, and even the pre requisites for the victory of the Chinese armies The peasant men have returned— but not is not yet fulfilled—-that is, the adoption of such democratic, social, economic and political yet the women and girls 1 W hat problems measures that the masses of the people really China has ! I t seems that all the problems oi feel that they have something to fight for, some thousands of years rest upon the shoulders ol thing to die for if necessary but, above all, the people. I even think that these problems something to live for. Again and again as we rest on the shoulders of the Communists 1 For go through the country, I am deeply, irrevoc what other force in all China comes from the ably convinced that the principles embodied in heart of the masses, burdened With the full con the heart of the Eighth Route Army are the only sciousness of the problems of the masses, and principles that will guide and save China, that conscious of China’s historic struggle and the will give the greatest of impulses to the libera possibilities of a new world struggling with such tion of all subjected Asiatic nations, and bring anguish for birth? W hat other army in all to life a new human society. This conviction China really and truly protects the masses of in my own mind and heart gives me the greatest the people? W hat other army m all China demands the reduction of taxes, the end of peace in myself that I have ever known. I suffer from an iniurv that exhausts me. There usury, the redivision of the land, and general seems little chance of it being cured until our improvement of the livelihood of the Pe°P*^ J*1® present manner of existence, with constant démocratisation of the entire, country ? W hat other force in this vast land, but the Commu marching. I t docs not m atter so very much, that injury of mine. M y injury is less than nists and their army, truly and deeply trust the that of the ordinary Chinese about me. This people, trust them so deeply, that they would organize and give them arms? The Chinese is my solace. If they can fight on, so can i, in armies are fighting for the first and most essen my own way. tial of all necessities— national liberation. But him to put a patch over his old ragged THE PLUNGE B y D IL IP K U M AR RO Y FriendsO et us sail Beyond the vale Of shadows, for the shoreless deep Whence wing love’s melodies that never sleep Calling the soul To the far goal. ':. H ark to their pledge : “ Who breaks his gyves, Arrives R efrain : I 0 Pilgrim h e a r t! W ake up and start F o r the unhorizoned Vast, to !woo Boons of the blue, Discarding siren gleams : | Away from moorings plunge ¡to the dream of dreams ! In the hurtling rapids of desire The masque of foam and dance of fire D a z z le : mind floats Alas, on phantom-boats, Hailing the songs of brittle waves as Hi3 Starry symphonies. R egain : 0 Pilgrim heart ! Wake up and start F o r the unhorizoned Vast, to woo Boons of the blue, Discarding siren gleams : Away from moorings plunge to the dream of dreams 1 There surge the diapasons of the F a r Which earthly tumults cannot m ar : Slumbering chords of life Thrilling respond, still rapture-rife : Hush ! there sings The King of kings ! Refrain : O Pilgrim heart ! Wake up and start F o r the unhorizoned Vast, to woo Boons of the blue, Discarding siren gleams : Away from moorings plunge to the dream of dreams ! le prearmies bion of foliticai really , someve all, as we rrevocdied in tie only a, that liberai bring iviction greatest >wn. I There itil our onstant much, ;s than pp m ¿mm’ : : W ;W ® I ' Sggli H i §1 ■■ v; IH H i C h e m is tr y G ir ls ’ D o r m ito r y , N a n k in g U n iv e r s ity , in ru m s B u ild in g , C e n tr a l U n iv e r s ity , N a n k m mm \ -j % • Th.is in I, in * 4 ^'ST'. A Shanghai N o rth s e a r c h lig h t 1 9 th S ta tio n b a tte ry R o u te of th e C h in e s e A rm y im of Ireams ! am of dreams 1 T w S ^ o m m a n d e r -in -C h ie f of the 8 t h R o u t e A r m y Ct/ ct\ .e S T o n with a member of «he Nauonal A d v is o ry The C h in e s e 8 th C o u n c il . R o u te A rm y Hgl W -< T H E M OD ERN R EV IEW FO R JU L Y , 1938 22 .ih e Bihar'Government cannot say that it is paying due attention to the uplift of the aboriginal population in the province. A writer in the Chotn Nagpur tSamachar points out that it made no special provision in its 1937-38 •bedget for their education. In the present year!s^budg$t Ihe provision is as follows: Literate Educational Per cent. Grant. Community Number •'53 to 1 Rs. 3,000 Aborigines 32 lakhs 3 -6 IMomins 10 lakhs 3*6 Rs. 7,000 (Native Moslems) |f these figures be correct, the Bihar ministers have! provided Rs. 3,000 for the educa tion of 32 lakhs of aborigines whose percentage of literacy ranges from ’ 53 to 1, but it ¡has provided Rs. 7,000 (which also is inadequate) "for another community of 1 0 lakhs whose per centage of literacy is 316 1 Y e t the Bihar ministers will not allow these aborigines to pass out of their guardianship. going, Mr. Nehru will be able unofficially to do some important ambassadorial work also will appear from the following message: *< ; 11 London, It is Z e tla n d c o n fir m e d and in tim a te d to L ,r d th a t H a lifa x R euter to H a lif a x w a n t to k n o w I n d i a ’s r e a c t i o n I am p rep ared on N eh ru is T h u rsd a y . ' N eh ru , Ju n e L o rd F r id a y . He b e e n e x te n d e d , Z e tla n d “L o rd 29. m e e tin g and th a t th e in v ita tio n s h a d h im p e r s o n a lly . “ I f ” s a id P a n d it and P a n d it , and T , L o rd C o n g r e s s v ie w s r e g a r d in g F e d e r a t io n re s p e c tin g in te r n a tio n a l to e x p r e s s th e m d e v e lo p m e n ts , -Renter . fo r c ib ly . •v"p Calcutta Town Hall Labour Demonstration A n a s su ra n c e th a t th e In d ia n N a t i o n a l C o n g r e s s w o u ld ^ s t a n d u p b y th e s id e o f l a b o u r a n d g iv e t h e m f u ll p a th y a n d s u p p o rt in th e ir s tr u g g le fo r s e c u r m g iu s t and C h an d ra le g itim a te B o s f, d e m o n s tr a tio n v a r io u s r ig h ts C on g ress of la b o u r w o rk ers u n io n s ^ ^ R e s o lu tio n s w as g iv e n P r e s id e n t, at th e over of Tow n c o n d e m n in g S j. p r e s s in g c o n s is tin g th e by sym th e ir ^ 1 m em b H a ll on £ th e c a llo u s n e s s of th e B e n g a l M in is tr y to w a rd s th e g r ie v a n c e s o f th e w o rk e rs an d a p p o in tin g a c o m m itte e to u n e a rth th e r e a l n a tu re o f th e ir China Information . Committee's “ News Releases ” ?E e r ‘ m o v e a g a i n s t . h e w o r k e r s a s a l s o te c tio n to d is tr e s s e d w o r k e r s w e r e p a s s e d . , O th e r r e s o lu tio n s p a s s e d to u c h e d u p o n th e g r a v e s U u a tio n w h ic h h a d We cordially thank the China Information Committee for the “ News Releases ” sent to us by air mail. : They enable one to realize the situation in China to a far greater extent than the news sent by Reuter. We are only sorry that The Modern Review, not "being a daily, is unable to publish them. But they will neverthe less be utilized. The numbers, up to June 7, so far received, contain the following articles: a r i s e n o u t o f t h e d i s p u t e b e t w e e n t h e C a l c i f ^ / i epCn^ ' i S u p p ly C o rp o ra tio n a n d its w o rk e r s , c o n d e m n e d th e B e n al S in g a p o r e L ast In T fa in F ro m C h in a , A b reast .S till Of W o r ld M a k in g No C h in a , N o rth A id in g C h i n a 'W a r , T rad e S. S. U n io n s M o v e m e n t, H su ch o w , w ay C h i n a ’s Kung D ual of K w an g si For In Ja p a n e se W est S o ld ie r s , C h i n a 's F in a n c ia l W ar 'A c c e l e r a t e s A g a in s t Ja p a n e se D r. K ung, Ja p a n , C h in a W hat F a c in g C om m ander S ta te O f M o b i M e d ic in e E p ic R e tre a t F ro m P u s h in g H ig h C h i n a ’s W a r, Free F ig h t R e fo rm O p iu m , A g a in s t S c h o o lin g C o n d itio n s S o c ia l A nd W ay P la n e s , C h in a , O f By N o rth F u r t h e r i n g C h i n a ’s S p o ils W ar W o m e n ’s A g a in s t C h i n a ’s Say s, M ono U rg ed W ife In Ja p a n L iv in g C o rre sp o n d e n ts C o n s tru c tio n O p iu m , C h in a U n ite d .C h in a , G ra v ey a rd C e n tra l In C h in a In L ast C h in a F ig h ts , A m e r ic a n H er A irm e n , S im p le r W om en, W ar C h in a In C h in a S ta b le In For D r. C h in a , A d m in is tr a tiv e fo r th e ir r e p r e s s iv e m ea su res a g a in s t le a d e a n d p r o m in e n t w o r k e r s o f th e S e a m a n s U n io n , p a t h i s e d w i t h C a w n p o r e t e x t i l e w o r k e r s a n d s t r i k e r s ar K u l t i , H i r a p u r a n d o t h e r places. The m e e t i n g b r o k e u p at 1 0 -3 0 p .m .— Amrita Bazar Patrika. Subhas Bose’s Experience in East/Bengal 7 The E d u c a tio n W est Ju lie t E p id e m ic T rad e, C h in a , A d u lt Ja p a n e se D o in g D is a s te r , C h i n a ’s Of W h ile In Is For L ite ra tu r e , C h in a ’s C h o le ra C h in a M oney E c o n o m ic liz in g W a r -tim e F e s tiv a ls D ie C o m p u ls o r y A ffa ir s , p o liz e s I, G u id e s W u h a n — G ra v ey a rd 'C h e c k e d , A ll A nd H su ch o w , L ib r a r y O f T rag ed y , S c o u ts G o v e rn m e n t h . B r a h m a n b a r ia , Ju n e lo . N e a r ly 1 5 p e r s o n s , in c lu d in g S j . S u b h a s C h a n d r a B o s e , C on g ress P r e s id e n t, and M a u lv i A sra fu d d m A hm ed C h o u d h u r y , S e c r e t a r y , B . P . C . C ., r e c e i v e d i n j u r i e s fo llo w in g w h a t th e m ent is s u e d “ h o o lig a n is m b r ic k b a ts on R a s tra p a ti C o n g r e s s . P r e s id e n t, in th ro u g h o n th e th e on h is th e th e United Press p a r t o f M o s le m p r o c e s s io n th is ot a s ta te a s -~ L e a g u e r s ’ , w h o th re w o r g a n is e d a r r iv a l h e r e co u rse c h a r a c te r is e d in honour ot tn e m o r n in g . Similar feats stand to the credit of some Moslem League “ tigers and lions” in the United Provinces. “T he exceed ed resp o n se I re c e iv e d fro m th e M u s lim p u b lic m y fo n d e s t h o p e s a n d I h a v e c o m e b a c k w ith th e c o n fid e n c e and c e r ta in ty th a t b e fo r e lo n g , b e a ll in s id e th e P r e s id e n t, Subhas M r. Associated P r e s s , a s B e n g a l to u r, y j th e C h an d ra reg ard s M u s lim s of Bengal C o n g r e s s ” , s a id th e th e B ose, in te r v ie w e d im p r e s s io n s of w ill, C o n g ress b y _ th e h is E ast R e fo r m s I n K ia n g s U P r o v in c e , T h e F ig h tin g S p ir it I n C h in a , T h r ic e T im e , U nd er Ja p a n e se K w a n t u n g ’s Food O c c u p a tio n , C h in a B id in g H er S h o rta g e S o lv e d , R e lie f For Calcutta Corporation Lady Teacher Incident W hat the Calcutta Corporation has done in relation to the lady teacher incident is not at all satisfactory. The disclosures made in That, besides receiving very enthusiastic the police officer’s report and in the minute of receptions and making speedhes wherever he is dissent of Councillor Phanindranath Brahma C h i n a ’s F r o n t-lin e R e fu g e e s. Mr. Nehru As ¡India’s Unofficial Ambassador V Äv I 0° THE CHINESE SOLDIER B y AGNES SM ED LEY Since time immemorial the Chinese have regarded the soldier as the lowest of the earth s human creatures, while the man who could read and write characters was given first honor and a privileged position in society. Today, much of this fallacious attitude continues to exist and is, in some degree, responsible for the weaknesses in the Army Medical Service and the inadequate care of the wounded. This fallacious attitude is also seen in recent Government decisions ■exempting the student class from conscripted military service at the front and for the fact that modern-trained Chinese physicians have not yet been conscripted by the Government for the Army Medical Service. While large numbers of students have voluntarily entered some branch of military sendee, such as guerilla units, the air force, or as officers, still they are chiefly confined to political work in the army and in the rear, while thousands of students calmly move to the rear and continue to study in universities in the same way as before the war began. This is their loss, for the difference between students who have seen hard service at the front, and those in the rear, is most striking. Those in the rear are soft, indecisive, often effeminate, not knowing what life is all about; those at the front become sharp, quick, determined, capable. Y et it can be said that almost the entire Chinese Army is made up of workers and peasants, the majority of them illiterate, most of them with the most miserable economic background. With the social heritage of out casts, these soldiers nevertheless arouse in all foreign observers who see them in action almost nothing but unstinted praise and admiration. Foreign military men of long service in western armies have repeatedly remarked that while high Chinese officers are very bad stuff, still the courage, endurance, stubbornness and initiative of the common soldiers and of the lower officers is unsurpassed. One foreign military officer who was on the General Staff in France during the world war said: “ I would be proud to command such men. ” True, in past wars of rival generals in China, the Chinese soldier received— and deserved— a bad name. However, th at was not his fault. He had no principle worth fighting; for, but was a tool of this or that General on. the path to glory and riches. B u t what he was really made of was shown repeatedly when he was once given something worth fighting for. Given an idea worth living for, and he was willing to fight and die for it. To understand this characteristic of the Chinese soldier you have but to know the economic and social conditions of the workers and peasants, from which the soldier springs. The common people stand always before hunger, completely unprotected from the ravages o f nature and the more merciless ravages of their fellow-man. Without the simplest elemental rights of man, they have in addition been left in the darkness of illiteracy. The soldier fought only for his bowl of rice in the past and natural ly enough it did not matter to him for whom, he fought. Y et this very virgin mental and economic state, combined with the native intelligence ; which characterizes the common man of China, makes the Chinese soldier the most fertile soil in the world for ideas. This was demonstrated, in the revolutionary wave of 1925-27 in China, but it was above all shown in the development of the Chinese Red Army of workers and' peasants. That Army sprang from the very soil of destitution and subjection and, beginning with some few rifles, grew until it stood off an army of a million men armed with weapons so superior to them that the comparison between the present Japanese Arm y and the Chinese may be made. Y e t the once half-naked Red Army of poor men is today meeting the powerful Japanese Army, throughout north and northwest China. As in the past, so today, the most powerful weapon of this Army, now called the 8th Route Army, is the knowledge it brings the common people. No people on earth are more willing to die for an idea of a new and better life than are the common men of China. Also, in 1932, the famous 19th Route A rm y demonstrated to the world what the Chinese soldier was capable of doing when fighting for his own country. T hat army was ragged an d l badly armed, and many of them mere boys. When the present Japanese invasion began, the C both i Inferii .and « fleets I and ir 'Chines .agains exprès .hurled sink. ” his è: .ability own 1 mirati love o A fo return [Route chara< “1 -s c a le ! minima purpose •He can II than ! -Chiné from -and j felt, I front politi' ■quest: civili! burea .at tl broth Manj more unifo: bodie .know destn to de ( ■const . their ... the f these T e p id brun cornr >ts £ fouit 'Gene recei ,!25l» S S H & ii. T H E CH IN ESE SOLD IER worth fighting: at General on t what he was •edly when he 1 fighting for. and he was eristic of the to know the f: the workers oldier springs*, before hunger, te ravages of vages of their lest, elemental ition been left soldier fought it and naturallim for whom and economic re intelligence nan of China, ost fertile soil demonstrated. >27 in China, e development workers and. rora the very and, beginning t stood off an th weapons so trison between l the Chinese df-naked Red g the powerful and northwest lay, the most io w called the e it brings the arth are more ew and better China. h Route Arm y t the Chinese in fighting for is ragged and mere boys, lvasion began* 42--: northern men wounded inonth& ago in Shantung. *the Chinese soldier again showed his mettle, They are big and strong, slow and stubborn'both in the north and ;n the Yangtze Valley. between the ages of twenty and thirty as a rule, Inferior by a thousand-fold to the well-armed and fully conscious of the meaning of this war. .and well-organized Japanese army with its Then, here in the Yangtze Valley today fleets of war vessels, airplanes, tanks, artillery also the ' shorter, wiry, temperamental .and intelligence service, still most units o f the a r e and the well-trained, Kwangtung Army, •Chinese Army stood up and continued to tight politically, Kwangsi Army. The crack troops .against colossal odds. As one foreign diplomat of the Central Government are also highly expressed it, “ Around Shanghai the Japanese trained, politically, in so far as the Japanese hurled everything at them except the kitchen problem is concerned. As the best-armed forces sin k .” The courage of the common soldier, of the country, they stood much of the brunt his endurance, stubbornness, initiative, and of fighting in the Yangtze Valley around ..ability to bear hardship when fighting for his Shanghai and Nanking, suffering heavy losses. ■own homeland, has aroused the unstinted ad The army with the highest political and miration of every unbiased foreigner and the social training is the famous Eighth Route, or love of every Chinese who is a sincere patriot. Communist Army. All its men have been A foreign military observer who recently taught to read and write in the Army, while . returned after three months with the Eighth military and political training is about equally *iRoute Army, expressed his opinion of the divided. Its morale is perhaps the highest of , character of the Chinese soldier in these words. all Chinese armies, and it is the only Army so exist,* grow, and operate success 1 “ T h e C h i n e s e s o l d i e r s t a n d s a t t h e v e r y t o p o f t h e i far able to • s c a le as a fig h tin g m an. G iv e n d ecent tre a tm e n t, a fu lly in the rear of the enemy, to reconquer m in im u m o f fo o d to s u s ta in l i f e in h im , a n d a s p ir itu a l Chinese territory, and re-establish Chinese -p u r p o s e t o fig h t f o r , t h e C h in e s e s o ld ie r h a s n o s u p e r io r . authority. The rank and file of its men 31e c a n e n d u r e m o r e h a r d s h i p t h a n a n y s o l d i e r o n e a r t h . believe that this is a holy war. I have In the Yangtze Valley today one has more talked with the wpunded of this Army as the^ than ample opportunity to observe the ordinary were carried from; the battlefield. Some knew Chinese soldier. Here are over a million men they were dying, but did not complain, and one from every section of the country. Provincial dying man tried lo comfort me by telling me .and geographical differences make themselves that it did not really matter if he died because felt, but beyond this, the fighting man at the China would be victorious. , ''Afront has no differences. In the rear, among The wounded Chinese soldier, generally ■politicians, there is unrelenting struggle over the speaking, is perhaps the most stoical of any on question of the mobilization and arming of the civilian population, against corruption and earth. This is a tragic necessity also, for the bureaucracy, and against political reaction. But Chinese Army Medical Service has not gone m .at the front all this vanishes and men are advance of the backward nature of the country brothers fighting for one common, holy purpose. in general. It is, therefore, badly organized M any of the Provincial troops are boys, little and most imperfectly equipped and trained.. more than children, their loose faded cotton At the front in the Yangtze Valley today one uniforms flapping about their thin adolescent can see long lines of lightly wounded men t; bodies. Their equipment is miserable and many making their paintful way for days and days to Isnow little more than the Japanese have some receiving station or field hospital m the •destroyed their homes and families and threaten rear. Men severely wounded lie dying in some peasant hut or wayside station, or under some to destroy all China. isolated tree. Generally the wounded man dies Other troops are older, seasoned, more in silence, uncomplaining, his eyes often ruled conscious men. Many come from the North, with hopelessness. I t is a terrible thing to see tk their homes already in occupied territory. In them die, for it is clear to those who know tnem the fighting in western Shantung down to June, that they are the material from which true these northern troops— formerly without high greatness is made, and that the loss of sue reputation— suddenly began to stand the full courage and consciousness is a loss to C h i n a brunt of the fighting. The 26th Route Army •commanded by General Sun Lien-chung, stood and to the world. In recent air raids in the Wu-Han citi , its grou n d 'to the very last— and lost threeI have again had the opportunity to watch tn fourths of its force. The Manchurian troops of Chinese soldier in action and to care nor some •General Y u Hsueh-chung did the same. I have of their wounded. With mangled bodies, they recently visited Army\hospitals filled with these A V IA > 486 T H E M OD ERN R E V IE W FO R N O V EM BER, 1937 beyond thef crowd I heard the voice of my foreign woman friend saying : “ I can’t get into your room ! I can’t even get near the electric lig h t! ” I looked around and saw my four leading characters and a number of others, clustered like bees around the electric light switch. They were taking turns switching it on and off. Each one tried a number of times, his face turned upward to watch the light bulb on the ceiling. His hand would be pushed aside, and another would take his turn. Well, that was also not so much, either, when the boys once got used to it. The time came when, in passing the switch, they would reach out and turn it on and off just like that, just like veterans. They did not want anyone to see them at it, for they hate to be regarded as greenhorn. They had thought Yenan had made them wise, for there they had at first been treated as greenhorns.- Until the Communists entered that town with its one main street bordered with one-storey open shops, the whole town did not consist of more than a thousand ^ ^ ed 'lS 'm y boys,— so large that the merchants swindled them right and left. This had taught them something of a lesson and they approached Sian somewhat gingerly. What their real ex periences in the city were I do not know. In the first days there they would disappear for hours at a time, walking the city from one end to the other. I do know that my guard came home triumphantly with a leather case for which he had paid double, while next day my “ little devil ” went-out and bought the same case, in a larger size,Mor half the price my guard had paid. This made my guard lose face so badly that they had a quarrel. He only got the upper hand two days later when he saw a train before the “ little devil ” saw one. This led to another quarrel. The “ little devil ” dashed off to the railway station, but he did not know that he had to buy a platform ticket. So they would not let him through the gates tq see the train. His defeat was sad to contemplate, and only a few days later could he actually see a train. Once, as we passed through the streets, the two boys halted and showed me a modern barber shop. They did not know I had ever seen one before. Red Army barbers are indi vidual men who, with kit in hand, go from unit to unit. A t one time we all went to the modern hotel to visit my fqrejgnwoman friend. This is a fine hotel with polished^ffobrs, upholstered furniture in the lobby, electric lights, curtains, white table cloths in the dinning room, and goodness knows what. M y friend had a room with a private bath. So the boys all poured into the bathroom with its white tiles and nickel, glass and mirrors. They turned on the hot and cold water, tested the wash basin, flushed the toilet repeatedly, and turned around and around, admiringly, looking at themselves in the big mirror. They visited the hotel to see the bathroom a number of times until they were veterans in that line also. B ut one wonder of wonders they could never get over— the moving pictures. Coming down from Yenan, my foreign woman friend had tried to explain to her guard what a moving picture was. He did not know what she was talking about. So, on the night of our arrival, she took him to the movies. Such was dhe wonder that the other boys waited im patiently the next morning for the time the theatre would begin its first show. They saw a jungle film, returned with wonder still in their eyes, and told me they had seen lions, tigers, elephants and a huge hairy animal that looked something like a man. None of the boys had ever seen such animals, though they had seen old prints of tigers. In Szechuen and Sikong, they had perhaps even seen tigers, or leopards. In any case, the tiger made no im pression on them. They became movie fans. The next day they said they were going to see a foreign movie, and asked me to go along. I went. They led me to a theatre with gaudy adver tising posters outside. The film was called “ Diamond Jim .” Though my heart sank, still the film was still more “ heart-sinking.” I sat through it, but lost my “ face ” entirely, completely. Everything in the miserable film the boys called “ American.” I t began with Diamond Jim , a huge fat fellow with a pro*truding stomach (supposedly an “ American worker ”) taking off his overalls and getting into a high silk hat and a cutaway. From that moment on, all the male characters wore this costume which, for the boys with me, became the ordinary American dress. “ Diamond Jim ” began to wear diamond buttons, pins and rings, but the boys did not even know what a diamond was. So th at part at least passed over their heads. All the women in the film were dressed in elaborate, gaudy trash, and this the boys thought was the way American woman dressed. The rooms in which the film was staged were filled with huge chandeliers, overstuffed, ornate furniture and bars. The boys dm not know what a bar was. They solemnly watched a “ bad man ” drive his horse ana buj r mar Just his ■ com gav< in t] bene mou his The mine how I Wi he c “ lit! "ama: as t look» befoi hnsb perie train the i the foim< inelu A fe surro ■ IB H T H E C H IN ESE R E D A R M Y GOES TO TOWN 487 ■buggy through a saloon door and up to a bar. closer examination of trains, which took many But they didn’t know what a saloon was and hours. When they returned, my “ little devil V they could not understand such conduct. There did not talk about the trains. He was depressevi was also a scene in a Stock Exchange, with a and miserable because one of the trains had ruined speculator sitting before a ticker, with been bombed by Japanese bombs. tape in hand. This was utter Greek to the . T- his little devil ” is still a child, but he boys, as was a gaudy wedding scene later. The is a melancholy child. He has been bombed characters talked and talked— and I was glad irom the air and he has suffered much. I t has the boys could not understand. The talk left a deep imprint on his mind and his entire carried absolutely nothing of any sense or value personality. Many things depress him. Once to anyone. he and my bodyguard and I were going through were four shots in the film that had the streets when they halted to watch someA someThere meaning for them. One was a horse thmg. It was a usual sight in all China except race, which interested them. Once was when in the Communist-administered areas. Twenty Diamond Jim and three of his friends, back in or thirty workers and peasants had been cap-. the early nineties, went out riding on a bicycle tured m the streets, roped together, and, built for four. Later, in the streets, these Red guarded by army officers, were being taken Army youths, halted before a bicycle shop and away to do forced labour, or carrying, for the laughed at the bicycles on sale there. They Kuommtang armies. My guard watched in were built for one person only, while in America, i cbd n° t talk for an hour afterwards. according to them, modern and advanced as it M y little d evil” came close to me, put his was, there were bicycles built for four ! hand on my arm, and s a id : “ They have Another scene was taken back in 1865, captured the loo pei sin / ” T hat is-—“ they presumably, and showed an engine and train have ^captured the common people.” The of ancient vintage. They had not yet seen the they was the ruling class, now as before the trams in Sian, and this before them was, to national front became a reality. The wise them, an American train. Still another scene little boy was filled with a dull, dejected misery. was the inevitable Hollywood love scene. One I wondered what memories this scene awakened of the actors pressed the leading lady to his in mm. His manner was the same as when he manly bosom and held her in a passionate kiss. Ju st as this started, my guard was searching for told me of the bombed train. Later, also I his lost ticket on the floor. But the squad took him to a hospital to be Treated "while I, at the same time, was being treated in another commander, his eyes staring from his head, department. Coming out. I found him in gave a loud exclamation, puriehed him violently misery standing before the hospital. He was in the ribs, and cried f look ! ” M y guard ,still bending, lifted his head and sat transfixed. His bitter when he told me they had demanded fifty cents from him, and he did not have it. He mouth was open and he did not even straighten had been ^in the Red Army for three vears and his back until the sight before him finished. never realized that one had to pav for medical 1 he squad commander had more presence of care. Even when the money was paid and he mind. He shot a startled glance at me to see was examined and given medicine, still he hated how I was taking such a shameless sight. As the hospital. 1 was engaged in watching him and m y guard, All the boys distrusted the city. Before he quickly turned his guilty head away. The long they would begin shouting a t the slick little devil ’ was watching the scene in merchants m the shops who tried to cheat them. amazement. F or him it was in the same class as the jungle film— as the hairy animal that not a cent m o r e !” ^ T° U ten cents and Jooked like a man. F o r such scenes as that „ „ still, they are guileless youths and they before us happen only in the bedrooms of were often cheated. Most merchants of China husband and wife in China. would p,ck the pennies off dead men’s eyes . At last came the high point in the ex perience of these Red Army youths— the railway Friends argue with me that there are certain old branches of trade such as silk th at have an tram and engine. When my woman friend left ancient code of honesty. the city we tc> ok JieiL T d E 3^ ^ BuA t H re were beautiful things now and Jhe little devil,” who was nowhere to be then which I saw while we were in Sian. Once lound. The boys examined the train thoroughly including the toilets a t the end of each car.' 1 SaZ l yi Ung soldier about the age of my own guard, halt my guard and smile a t him. They l few days later they climbedT the mud wall stood smiling a t each other. Then they reached surrounding the railway yard and made a out and held each other’s hand and began 488 T H E M ODERN R E V IE W FO R N O VEM BER, 1937 telling each other their names, where they came But once with their comrades they talk ceasefrom, where their native home was,, and where lessly, explaining what they have seen and they were going. It was a beautiful picture of learned:* Once back in local headquarters, they class brotherhood— also a picture of youth are at home and in their natural environment, meeting youth. Typical of their life there was_the mass meeting There was another incident which I recall held on the evening of September 26th— the day with laughter. One day the squad commander after the First Division of the Eighth Route and I went in the fine modern hotfel. We went Army, commanded by Lin Piao, had met the down to the lobby, intending to pick up a camp Japanese invaders on the Great Wall in north bed which had been left for us in the office at Shansi Province. This Division of Kiangsi the further end of the lobby. Now this squad revolutionary fighters got in the rear of the eomma'nder is a gruff fellow who made the Japanese— their tactics have no parallel— and long march. He is slightly stooped and he cut an enemy division to pieces, taking prisoners, walks rapidly, looking up from beneath heavy field guns, shells, fifty trucks and five armoured eyebrows. He has a gruff voice and he speaks cars. The Japanese had been rolling over only the Kiangsi Provincial dialect which few north China with no-one to stop them except other men can understand. He is a fine fighter, the regular Chinese armies that simply could but he is no star on polished floors of fine do nothing. But the first encounter between a hotels. So, just as we entered the lobby, filled Communist division of seasoned fighters and the with silk-gowned gentlemen drapping themselves invaders, had ended in a great victory for over the upholstered chairs and couches, this China. When we received the news in Sian a commander lowered his head and bawled at the meeting was held in local headquarters. I got top of his voice at the clerks behind the desk out of bed and went. Everybody in the building at the other end of the lobby. was present, from all the men in charge, to the “ Where is our camp bed ! ” he bawled. cooks and cook-assistants. There were many Then he went for them,right across that released political prisoners from Nanking and fine polished floor. They stood stupefied. So, Soochow, students from Peiping and Tientsin half way across, he bawled again, “ Where’s our going to Yenan, political workers from Yenan camp bed ! ' ’ en route to various places of China, Red Army These clerks are polished Shanghai chaps in men, guards, “ little devils,” and two foreigners foreign-style clothing, and they did not under- —one of the foreigners a New Zealand English stand a word of the Kiangsi dialect. Further- man, a newspaper correspondent. more, they had never before had a Red Army This meeting was a wildly enthusiastic one commander charging across the lobby at them, We were told of the victory in the north and ordering them to surrender, so to speak. I was men Interrupted the speaker to shout slogan« tickled half to death by the scene. For the Chou En-lai’s wife led the celebration The commander was instinctively hostile to every- New Zealander contributed an abdriginalmaori thing around him and the clerks were paralysed. dance^FT n^ country. I tortured the audience I explained to them that we merely wanted the with two songs— but then, many of these men camp bed. Silently they surrendered it and I had made thtr long march or been in prison for could not help adding . years/ so they could stand almost anything A Never mmd— such men as this, alone, will student back .from Japan tortured me when he Save‘China fipm the Japanese. sang what he called a Japanese love song. A The squad commander tossed the camp bed Red Army man told an incident of the long over one shoulder and charged through the silly march— how the Red Army crossed the swinging doors, and outside charged toward the treacherous Datu River in Sikong while enemy iron gates and the street beyond. troops raked their ranks from across the river Well, there were many other things in Sian As he ended, Chou En-lai’s wife arose and «ang from which the boys learned. They visited the two stanzas of a beautiful song of the long electric light plant, foi ^ example, and had a march. The melody was the ancient one about two-hour lecture in detail of how electricity is a wife singing of her husband killed while made. They walked around and around and building the Great Wall during the ancient over and about the huge machines. Up to Chin Dynasty, two hundred years before Christ, them, the largest machine they had ever seen Chou E n-lai’s wife san g : had been a motor truck engine. I would give ’ I n M a y in L u tin g e h o w , a lot to hear exactly how they explain electricity L i u H u n g - k w - i i ’s t r o o p s to others. Outside, in the city, they are silent F o u g h t u s fie r c e ly . — perhaps lest they be taken for greenhorns. 0 B u t w e c ro s s e d th e D a tu R iv e r . BRUNO L IL JE F O R S —T H E SW EDISH ARTIST S e v e n te e n h e ro e s I n th e c ro s s in g . ^ | v ', I 't gave th e ir 489 liv e s 1st Division of the 8th Route Army of China. We sang and spoke and danced strange I n A u g u s t w e m a r c h e d n o r th w a r d dances, then ended the mass meeting by all A cro s s th e G ra s s L a n d s , B u t n e v e r f e lt th e c o ld . standing up, lifting our fists, and shouting N e v e r h a d m e n c ro s s e d th e s e L a n d s b e fo r e . slogans in praise of the heroic Eighth Route T h e s tr o n g e s t o f a ll a r m ie s is th e R e d A rm y — Army, for “ there is no difficulty it cannot T h e r e i s n o d iffic u lty w e c a n n o t c o n q u e r . conquer, no fort it cannot take.” And we shouted slogans against the Japanese. After this fragment of a long ballad, with Near me sat or stood my four characters, its haunting melody, a group of Peiping students the three .guards and my “ little devil,” rang the patriotic song. “ Fight Back to your laughing or shouting slogans. This was their Manchurian Home 1 1 Then arose a Red Army natural element. They belong to the revolution, fighter from Kiangsi Province and sang the to struggle, to warfare. And as I looked at strangest song I had ever heard. I thought it them in the midst of their comrades, I knew a song of the aboriginal tribes of Sikong which that not one of them would know anything else he must have learned during the long march. their whole lives through. For the independence It was harsh, sharp, clear, militant, jerky. It of China will not be gained in a day or a year, stirred the blood. But it was no aboriginal and the revolution in China will last through song. It was a Kiangsi folk song as sung out their lifetimes even if they live to be fifty__. by Kiangsi Red Army fighters,— now the which is doubtful. ..... I BRUNO LILJEFORS—THE SWEDISH ARTIST B y LAKSHM ISW AR SINHA Three contemporary artists, who represent Swedish art within the coutry’s frontiers and beyond them, and whose pictures adorn today a great many art-galleries, are Carl Larsson, Anders Zorn and Bruno Liljefors. The first was i a water-colour painter, and painted pictures ? of Swedish homes. Some of his wall and fresco | paintings are to be seen in the National j Museum, the ceiling decorations in oil in the | Royal Opera House, the Royal Dramatic theatre and in many other public buildings. 1 ltle second, namely Anders Zorn, earned a k world-wide fame for himself as an etcher and < as such, he has no rival in his line. I had had j t‘le. fortune of visiting the homes of both the | artists in the province of Dalarna some three / years ago and still today I carry the impresI Pons made on me by the atmosphere of their T . Both the artists are dead, but they are i still living in their classic creations, which have j undoubtedly immortalized them in the history r f> 01 the fine arts. j * ?h e last of the trio, namely, Bruno Liljefors js a fore-runner of the artist-devotees of Sweden o the open scenery and, as such,” has endeared «unself to all who love nature and art. Herein 62—2 aie reproduced only a few of his pictures which are to be found, besides the museums, in most of the Scandanavian homes. A true work of art itself expresses its essential purport without any explanatory note to all who are capable of seeing and feeling like an an tst—says an art-critic. I t is, there fore, without going into the interpretations of the pictures reproduced here, a short sketch of the artist and the atmosphere which in reality served as a source of inspiration to him-—as it does, I presume, to all artists— are given below. Born in I860, in the plain of the province of uppland, Liljefors has devoted his talents to interpret in colours, the mysteries of the forest and its animal kingdom. From the scenic points of view, Uppland is characterised by the protruding rocks— interrupted here and there by plains and forests. Important as it is, m the Nordic history and early civilization of the country, and where lies today the oldest LDiversity of Sweden— namely, Uppsala, the seat of learning, Uppland cannot, however, claim to possess the striking scenery of the lofty mountains with snow-clad peaks of Norrland and shimmering lakes with verdant shores of C*T~ »-s *-r*-*- etcd