Breathing Spell

With an estimated 50,000 Chinese and 10,000 Japanese dead, after two years of undeclared war from Manchuria down through Jehol Province into an arc south of the Great Wall, last fortnight's truce had by last week actually brought to North China what Premier Wang Ching-wei called a "breathing spell." To bind the verbal agreement, Chinese Lieut. General Hsiung Ping last week went to Tangku on the seacoast. As he stepped off his swank special train, he saw two Japanese destroyers tied at the docks. Their guns were trained on Tangku, the gun turrets manned. A Chinese armored train pulled in, its guns trained on the destroyers. Every 20 feet stood a Chinese with a rifle, revolver, machine-gun or snickersnee. General Hsiung was obliged to walk across a dusty road, through a network of new barbed wire and trenches, to the Japanese garrison's barracks. Inside he saluted Japanese Major-General Neiji Okamura whom he outranked, signed the curt truce agreement. Then General Hsiung and colleagues returned to Tientsin, prepared to hand their resignations to Nationalist Dictator Chiang Kaishek.

Despondent Chinese patriots cheered up a little when they heard the terms of the truce (TIME, June 5). Though it kept their armies out of an area south of the Great Wall as big as Ohio, and kept Japanese patrols inside to watch for "provocations," it saved face for Chiang Kai-shek by two omissions. It said nothing about Chinese recognition of the puppet state, Manchukuo, nothing about Japanese control of the railway from Peiping to Tangku. Besides saving Chiang Kai-shek's face, the omissions showed that Japan prefers to deal with him rather than with the scrabbling warlords who would take over China if he fell.

Immediate results of the truce last week were two. From the south the Canton Government called home the 19th Route Army from its trek north to take over the war against Japan. At the same time Cantonese General Chen Chi-tang accepted a long-standing order from Chiang Kai-shek to suppress bandits in five southeastern provinces. Canton also withdrew its support of ''Christian General" Feng Yu-hsiang, strutting in Chahar Province. And last week 47 Chinese Generals signed a circular telegram supporting the truce and repudiating General Feng.

Since there are far more than 47 Generals in China, big, fat General Feng continued looking for support, snorted defiance at everybody.

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