Chaos Into Ruins

Of China's 4,480,992 square miles Japanese forces took: ,BR> 9,215 in the last week 15,730 in the last month
155,002 in the last year
655,002 since 1931

Outstanding in the U. S. Midwest for the competence of its foreign news coverage and the number of its special correspondents, Chicago's Daily News printed last week much matter which the Chinese Government's censors had slashed out of its Shanghai correspondents' dispatches during the Japanese advance to capture Nanking, the former Chinese capital (TIME, Nov. 29, et seq.). Examples of what was slashed:

"Nanking's greatest fear, which explains the sudden evacuation of the capital despite the fact that the Japanese troops are still 110 miles east of the city gates, is looting by Chinese troops--not fear of bombardment from Japanese warships. . . . Inside the Chinese lines the utmost confusion prevails. . . . Chinese troops have not been paid since August. . . . There is severe lack of food for front-line troops. . . . Demoralization had resulted from lack of attention for the Chinese wounded. . . . Then, too, might be added the strong resentment of the Chinese front-line troops at the fact that while they are under constant aerial bombings from Japanese bombers no Chinese bombers have appeared during daylight hours, although every Chinese soldier had been given to understand that Chiang Kai-shek's chief threat to Japan consisted in his air force. . . . What now? Japan has succeeded in plunging China into chaos which will take several years, perhaps decades, to straighten out. . . . With China's near collapse understood, neither Russia nor any other nation will feel desirous of giving China military assistance."

During the World War no correspondent would have dreamed of handing to a French or German censor a dispatch containing such obvious dynamite, however correct, and the placid Chinese censor as a matter of fact indulged Chicago's Daily News to the extent of passing this: "Only one thing can save the Chinese Army now, this correspondent learns--continued torrential rains for three days." What made all this timely last week was that Japanese forces were at the moment approaching the great Shantung city of Tsingtao and in it Chinese looters, firebugs, panic-stricken soldiers and gangsters were creating fresh chaos as they laid waste the $100,000,000 of Japanese property in the city.

The moon-faced mayor of Tsingtao, Admiral Shen Hung-lieh of the insignificant Chinese Navy, at first did his best to have Chinese looters shot on sight, and numerous corpses accumulated in front of Japanese shops. Later as the mayor's authority crumbled, and as maddened

Chinese started looting and burning indiscriminately, Admiral Shen adopted the desperate expedient of having signs put up directing prospective looters to Japanese premises, in the hope that they would spare others. Finally the Admiral fled pell-mell with Tsingtao's Chinese police.

U. S. residents of Tsingtao were sternly advised by U. S. Consul Samuel Sokobin that they must not join German, British and Russian residents who were busy recruiting a group of some 250 white vigilantes armed with clubs to protect each other's lives and property as best they could. While the Sokobin "good neighbor policy" was pursued by U. S. citizens, the white club-wielders dashed about Tsingtao in groups of five, cracking the crown of every yellow native they suspected of looting. Tsingtao by this time looked from a distance like one great smoking pyre of chaos, but after some 36 hours of club work, and before the Japanese conquerors arrived, cables reported the city "quiet."

The mass flight of Chinese was estimated to have pulled the population of Tsingtao down from 500,000 to 50,000. South of Shanghai, the great city of Hangchow was down from 500,000 to 150,000. Meanwhile native Chinese official communiques switched suddenly to a new technique of reporting the war. Instead of making the time-honored effort to fool the Chinese masses by telling them their troops were fighting bravely and that such-&-such a Chinese city would not surrender, the new Chinese newspaper refrain became: "When the Japanese capture the city they will find only ruins."

Last week at Hankow, to which Chinese Premier & Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek went from Nanking, the Chinese authorities permitted United Press's Jack Belden to send a dispatch with this lead: "The Chinese Communist Party, already dominant in the coalition which forms the present Central Chinese Government, tonight extended its control to three more of the nation's defense areas." Mr. Belden went on to record "a general tendency which would give officials of the former Chinese Soviet Government . . . domination of almost the entire conduct of the struggle'' of China v. Japan. This was saying as plainly as Jack Belden could that the Government is going and has almost gone Red.

The "almost" factor was provided by negotiations in Hankow last week between Generalissimo Chiang and the German Ambassador Dr. Oskar P. Trautmann. acting for Japan. News of these talks, although every effort had been made by Trautmann to keep them secret, was broken by dispatches from Hankow routed to the outside world via Moscow. What were said to be the "mild peace terms" being offered by Dr. Trautmann were then released at Tokyo. Japan asks China to pay the cost of the war; she asks the Chinese Government to repudiate Communism and accept Japanese advisers; China is then to recognize Manchukuo and collaborate economically with Japan in joint air and rail services and other projects. Latest reports were that Chiang had twice refused the Japanese proposals, but that Trautmann was going to call with them again.

Meanwhile in the French Concession at Shanghai two Chinese disguised as orange peddlers assassinated one of China's leading businessmen and her leading Christian philanthropist. Joseph Lo Pa-hong, Knight of the French Legion of Honor, Papal Knight-Commander of the Order of St. Sylvester, etc. Last November 11, the Catholic sisters of Maryknoll, Ossining, N. Y., received a cable from the sisters of their Mercy Hospital for the Insane near Shanghai reading: "Can you send money for food? Lo bankrupt." Mr. Lo, who had long supported Mercy Hospital, had slid from being one of the richest men in China into bankruptcy when Chinese looted and burned his properties, believing him to be pro-Japanese. Philanthropist Lo headed the recently organized Shanghai Civic Association, suspected of being a Japanese-inspired group which wanted to make him mayor. Another of its members, Yung Tsung-ching, "The Flour King of China," said last week: "One cannot ride a two-headed horse and get anywhere. It is tragic, but true, that China today is virtually without a Government. During times like these citizens must fearlessly take charge of the situation in order to reduce want and suffering."

South China's great port, Canton, was furiously bombed by Japanese airmen who, however, held off last week until a train bearing 167 U. S. citizens from the interior had chuffed through Canton safely, bound for Hong Kong. Some $10,000 worth of bandages and medicinal supplies, just landed at Canton by the American Red Cross, were set afire and destroyed by the bombs.

This week Chiang, while remaining Generalissimo, resigned as Premier in favor of his brother-in-law Dr. H. H. Kung, only recently returned from a European shopping tour for war supplies (TIME, Aug. 30). Premier Kung, a descendant of China's greatest sage Confucius (whose memorial tablet on the Classical Mountain Taishan was threatened by Japanese last week) is a Chinese conservative. However, his first act as Premier was to order freed from Chinese jails virtually all prisoners, and the majority of these happened to be Communists. Dispatches reported Chinese Communist leaders pressing Premier Kung and Generalissimo Chiang to "give weapons to all."

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