Kowtowing to Henry

Henry wore a cutaway cut by a Japanese tailor and very white gloves. Elizabeth wore a close fitting gown of Chinese silk with a slit skirt. The day was fine. Cheerfully Henry and Elizabeth alighted last week from a Pullman car at Changchun (extreme northern terminus of the U. S.-equipped Japanese South Manchuria Railway). Through his owlish smoked glasses, Henry managed to read a sign which stretched clear across the Changchun station: Welcome to our Emperor, Henry Pu Yi VIII.

While a Japanese Shinto priest loudly thumped a drum, Chinese and Japanese soldiers guarding the station knelt to Henry VIII. Famed Chinese General Ma rushed forward, made three deep bows to Henry, one deep bow to Elizabeth. Next a Mongol, Prince Chi, made his elaborate obeisance. General Mori, the Japanese in charge of installing Puppet Henry VIII at Changchun, bowed very slightly, once to Henry, once to Elizabeth. Followed by a retinue of 60 Chinese and Japanese, the young couple drove through Changchun's clean, new Japanese town into its messy old Chinese walled city, alighted at what had been the Chinese City Hall.

With General Ma acting as Grand Chamberlain (to arrive in time General Ma had taken that morning the second airplane ride of his life), Henry VIII entered the hall and sat down upon a richly draped chair. To him a throne was nothing new. As a child he sat on China's famed "Dragon Throne" at Peking as the Emperor Hsuan Tung, deposed when six.

Around the new throne of what Japan is determined to make a new state stood, last week, some very old Chinamen, exceptional in that they have preserved their long queues. It was like old times. Ceremoniously General Ma advanced, prostrated himself before Henry VIII, and kowtowed (touched his forehead to the floor). Henry was then given two large seals of solid gold. From his throne he shrilled:

"The people of Manchuria have long suffered under tyrannical government. I must confess myself poor in talent and unable to devise means to relieve the people from their pain and suffering.

"However, with a due sense of my unworthiness . . . I am determined to use my utmost efforts, with the kindly aid and wise advice of you all." (The room was half full of Japanese, including General Honjo, the conqueror of Manchuria.)

"The Heaven and the Sun above," concluded Henry VIII, "know all."

Forward stepped His Excellency Count Uchida, president of the Japanese South Manchuria Railway, and handsomely congratulated Henry. To be on the safe side, the Chinese Eastern Railway which has its southern terminus at Changchun, gave Henry a limousine. Soon he was riding out to "the Village of Apricot Blossoms," a suburb of Changchun where he hopes to live in the summertime. Frozen solid by the roadside lay several Chinese paupers, dead and half eaten by dogs.

Henry and Elizabeth were shocked, their Japanese entourage announced. Promptly Henry issued "Decree No. 13,'' ordered 200,000 yen ($68,000) given to the poor of Manchuria. Japanese bankers last week were already negotiating a loan of $6,000,000 to the new state. Japanese speculators were snapping up likely lots at Changchun. For his South Manchuria Railway able Count Uchida got a fat contract to build the Government Offices which must obviously be built at Changchun.

Such offices already exist at Mukden, the traditional capital of Manchuria, which also contains an Imperial Palace of the Manchu Dynasty. But by setting up Henry VIII in Changchun (he begged to be set up in Mukden, the capital of his ancestors) Japan was able to plunge the new state at once and heavily into debt. To collect the principal and interest on this debt, Japan may have to retain de facto control of Manchuria for some time.

Last week the Japanese Government was in no hurry to recognize de jure the Government of Henry VIII. But in Tokyo blunt Japanese War Minister Araki barked, "It is only a question of time."

Statesman Stimson, although unalterably opposed to recognizing the new state, nevertheless told all U. S. Consuls in Manchuria to stay where they were last week. In Russia, he recalled, the U. S consuls stayed where they were for a whole year after Bolsheviks set up the Soviet Union. With a flourish the Chinese Government announced that not only did it not recognize Henry VIII but that "He has been kidnapped by the Japanese."

In Manchuria a few bold Chinese celebrated the ascension of Henry VIII by starting seven fires in the Japanese quarter of Mukden, attacking General Honjo's special train which repulsed them with many a bullet, and by starting minor revolts in the remoter parts of Manchuria. Bullets sent up by Japanese and Chinese fighting on the Manchurian side of the Amur River alighted last week in Blagovveshchensk on the Soviet side of the river.

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