Peking Falls

Valor's a mousetrap. . . .

In all the trade of war no feat

Is nobler than a brave retreat.

--Butler's Hudibras.

The city of Peking, for five centuries the traditional Capital of China, fell last week to the South Chinese Nationalist Armies. Noble was the evacuation carried out by the great Marshal Chang Tso-lin. Scarcely a retreat, and in no sense a rout, the War Lord's departure took on the semblance of a stately pilgrimage. The event was of paramount importance because, for the first time in the present decade of Civil War, it can now be substantially claimed that all of China proper is under a single regime--the Nationalist Government, founded by the late, famed and revered Dr. Sun Yatsen, and led to victorious dominion by its present Generalissimo, slender, modest, democratic Chiang Kaishek.

Chang Evacuates. Since 1911 the word of War Lord Chang Tso-lin has been and still is law in Manchuria, the vast and fruitful Chinese province which adjoins China proper on the North and is adjacent to Japanese territory.

Thus it was to Manchuria that Marshal Chang departed, last week, with his armies, his armored trains, his Packard limousines, his wives, children, concubines, innumerable bastards, faithful retinue.*. . .

To emphasize the nobility of the War Lord's evacuation his son and heir, Marshal Chang Hsueh-liang, remained behind in Peking to hand the city over to the approaching Nationalist Armies. With him remained a little known but thoroughly potent Chinaman--General Yang Yu-ting, sometimes called the "Ludendorff" or "Brains" of Chang Tso-lin.

As the War Lord's sumptuous private train rushed toward Manchuria, preceded and followed by grim armored pilot trains, he knew that only an attack by enemy spies or some supreme treachery among his followers could deprive him of life or his great wealth. The unexpected and improbable occurred when two Nationalist spies were able to intercept Chang's train with shrewdly tossed bombs, which smashed three railway cars, but injured the War Lord very slightly, according to despatches.

Mouse Trap. The bizarre opinion that valor is a mouse trap was quaintly justified by the circumstances which caused Chang Tso-lin to withdraw from Peking last week, without fighting any final pitched engagement or making a theatrical "last stand." Circumstances:

First, the 450,000 partially rabble troops mustered by the Nationalists have been, for the last three months, steadily forcing Chang's relatively well-equipped 200,000 northward, back and back upon Peking.

Second, the Japanese Government is resolved that the Chinese Civil War shall not spread still further northward from Peking into Manchuria, now teeming with little brown colonists from the neighboring Islands of Japan. Therefore the Japanese General Staff, although exceedingly friendly to Chang Tso-lin, recently gave warning (TIME, May 28) that neither he nor any other Chinese would be permitted to enter Manchuria for purposes of active warfare.

Third, the effect of this situation was that if War Lord Chang had fought a last engagement at Peking, suffered defeat, and then retired still fighting and chased by the Nationalists toward Manchuria, he would have found his retreat cut off by the Japanese.

Thus to have shown fight and valor, last week, would have been a mousetrap for Chang. Had his retreat been cut off, his fate would have been annihilation by the Nationalists. Instead he peacefully withdrew into Manchuria, where the Nationalists cannot follow him, because Japan would stop their warlike incursion.

Japan's Alibi. Plain as a pikestaff is the fact that Japan's attitude saved War Lord Chang from possible decisive defeat and assured that he will continue to govern Manchuria in the interest of Japanese colonists.

Among U. S. statesmen at Washington hope was expressed that the several Nationalist factions will not now begin to squabble in their hour of victory and thus cast away China's only hope for a truly National Government. Particularly is the semi-independent Nationalist Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang to be viewed with apprehension. Famed as the "Christian Marshal," he is of exceedingly rude Cromwellian stamp and has betrayed to his own advantage almost every cause with which he has been associated. If, however, the Nationalists are able to present a united front and manage to keep their rabble troops from committing depredations at Peking, it is certain that the U. S. State Department will not delay to recognize this new, alert, enlightened, and promising regime, which alone holds forth the prospect of uniting China at last and for the first time under a democratic government.

Chiang. First in war and first in the hearts of true Nationalists is Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek. In 1920 he was a junior clerk on a Chinese Stock Exchange. Two years ago not one Chinaman in a thousand would have recognized his name, and he was still totally unknown in the Occident. Suddenly cables flashed that from Canton, in the extreme South of China, a so-called "Nationalist Army" was advancing Northward. The commander prophesied that he would conquer half China within the space of two moons, and said that his name was Chiang Kaishek. Neither statement impressed. . . .

Spies and Moscow trained propagandists filtered ahead of the army, firing opposing troops and the population with two great ideals:

"Down with the Militarists!" and "Up with the Nationalist principles of Dr. Sun Yat-sen!" Amazingly the word smote and sword cleaned. Before two moons had risen Chiang had battled across half China.

Hankow fell, Shanghai, Nanking. Then came the most amazing act of Chiang's career, his break with Moscow, which had financed his armies, and his transformation of the Nationalist Government into a Liberal entity at the ancient Chinese Capital of Nanking.

Thereafter Chiang Kai-shek suffered military reverses at the hands of Chang Tso-lin, retired to private life for some months (TIME, Aug. 22), and only recently has emerged to lead the now victorious campaign against Peking. Before him looms the last, Washingtonian adventure, to become First in Peace.

*Also carried off for good measure was the entire staff and mechanical equipment of the Peking Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the only plant in China capable of turning out first-rate banknotes; and also most of the usable rolling and portable machine-equipment of the three principal railways of North China. Experts opined that unless Chang is made to disgorge or unless new equipment is bought, the railroads in question will be virtually useless.