Hao, Hao

What's left of Nationalist China got a lift and a jolt last week.

Early one morning, Chiang Kai-shek's Douglas Skymaster eased down onto the runway of Canton's Milky Way airport. The Gimo, wearing a jungle-green uniform, stepped out waving his sun helmet. It was his first visit to Canton since 1936. A waiting group of Kuomintang officials heard again his familiar "Hao, hao" (good, good). Chiang's bull-necked son, Chiang Ching-kuo, hustled his father into a waiting 1948 DeSoto, and the pair sped off to visit Acting President Li Tsung-jen and Premier Yen Hsi-shan. Li and Yen, who had not been informed in time that the Gimo was on his way, had rushed to the airport too late to greet him.

For two days Chiang obviously enjoyed himself at official tea parties. Then he stood up before a meeting of Kuomintang leaders, and went straight to the heart of the matter. Said he:

"I feel ashamed to be back in Canton under the present circumstances of retreat and failure. I cannot but admit that I must share a great part of the defeat . . . I am appalled at the existence of gambling and opium smuggling in Canton under the very nose of the government. [But] we must hold Canton, our last port . . . the last place from which we can use both our navy and air force ... I am ready to perish with the city."

Chiang's return engendered optimism in Canton. Said a high government official: "We were like sheep without a shepherd--now our leader has returned."

Shepherd Chiang had laid the basis for new confidence a week ago by flying to Baguio, summer capital of the Philippines. There he conferred with Philippine President Elpidio Quirino on preparation for an anti-Communist pact which other Asiatic countries would be invited to join.

The rosy glow which had suffused Canton officialdom after this and Chiang's visit was immediately overcast by news from the north. Communist armies, quiet for more than two months, had begun to roll southward again. From Peiping, the Red radio announced that General Lin Piao, conqueror of Manchuria, was advancing into Hunan province on two fronts, apparently driving for the Nationalist strongpoint at Changsha. Four of Lin's divisions captured the Yangtze port of Ichang, 200 miles north of Changsha. In Shensi province, the Nationalist defenders abandoned Paochi, the western terminus of the Lunghai railroad, but counterattacked east and west of the town. Another big battle was shaping up in western Kiangsi province, directly above Canton.

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