Wooed Wu

Japan has long delayed naming a supreme puppet government for all her conquered territory in China for the simple reason that no respected top-flight Chinese leader is willing to head it. The most respected Chinese figure not fighting on the side of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek is China's oldtime warlord General Wu Pei-fu, once master of middle China before the Generalissimo deposed him in 1926. He is respected for his eccentricity (he is followed wherever he goes by a faithful spittoon-bearer) and because he is as wily as Ulysses. Some time ago he was reported willing to be head puppet for the Japanese wire-pullers on two somewhat novel conditions: 1) he must be permitted to swear allegiance to Chiang Kaishek; 2) the Japanese must get out of China.

Last week Japan's Domei news agency--as it has more than once before--triumphantly reported that the old warlord had agreed to head their Chinese Government. Next day from Wu's spokesman came his usual denial. A crafty Japanese censor at Peiping had read a telegram General Wu had sent to friends in which he said he was ready "to overcome any difficulties to secure peace." The phrase, said the spokesman, was lifted from the wire, sent to Japan where Domei converted it into an acceptance of Japan's offer.

One good reason why General Wu has no desire at present to become a Japanese puppet was not hard to understand. By week's end in Shanghai, patriotic Chinese assassins rubbed out one more of a score of their countrymen for connivance with the Japanese. His name was Mao Yu-hong and his briefly held job was Secretary General to the puppet Nanking Government.

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