So Sorry

Since the 13th-Century reign of Genghis Khan, the Mongols of northern China have been a proud, fierce people. They have fought Chinese and Japanese with equal stubbornness. Just as stubbornly they have fought among themselves. Outer Mongolia fell under Soviet influence; then Inner Mongolia, stretching north from China's Great Wall to the Gobi, became the Japanese puppet state of Meng-Chiang.

The Japanese gave Mongolian nationalists a high-sounding Mongolian United Autonomous Government. They introduced a "planned economy" to exploit herdsmen and coolies, to loot mines and resources. The arrangement was eminently pleasing to the Japanese. Not only did they drain Inner Mongolia's wealth, but they had a vast buffer state against Russia and a Mongol army which kept the peace. Last week the army was gone.

The Japanese had tried to make sure that hard-eyed General Pai Feng-hsiang and his army of 18,000 hard-riding cavalrymen would play no tricks. So the Japanese arranged a feast and invited the surly general. When the general died the same night, the Japanese said: "So sorry." Then they looked around for a friendlier leader.

But the Japanese had forgotten how wise in the ways of treachery the Mongols were. When it leaked out that General Pai had been poisoned, his entire Army of 18,000 men rode off in the night. With them they took all the machine guns and ammunition the Japanese had given them. Near Paotow in Suiyuan Province, vowing vengeance as terrible as any conceived by Genghis Khan, the Mongols joined forces with the Chinese.

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