Justice on the Radio

Canton again was plunged into China's Red terror. Last week the Communist masters of the city (pop. 1,000,000) decreed a holiday and summoned the people to a grisly circus. Obligingly, they broadcast the show, so that the outside world knew what it was like.

More than half a million people turned out on Canton's streets, jammed into the square in front of the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, where a tribunal had been set up. Some 229 loudspeakers carried the proceedings to crowds packed in the side streets. From 10 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon, Communist cadres organized "tuning-in parties."

"You May Beat Them." The overture was an hour of speeches by high Red officials, including Mayor Yeh Chien-ying, who cried that the time was past for leniency toward counterrevolutionaries. Then a batch of prisoners, described by a Red announcer as very "pale-faced," were led slowly through the crowd toward the tribunals. Screams of "Shoot them! "Vengeance for the people!" rose up. From the platform Judge Huang Yi-ping shouted into the microphone: "As these prisoners pass before you, you may beat them, bite them or spit on them to wash away your hatred." The spectators followed the suggestion.

At one side of the tribunals, a group of people held a big placard that read, "We 600 persons are the victims of these counter-revolutionaries." The 600 acted as a chorus or cheering section. When 198 prisoners were finally lined up in kneeling position on the platform, Judge Huang announced that they had already been tried by the government, but were now being "handed over to you for retrial."

Prisoner Yu Chi-teh, charged the judges, had signaled Nationalist planes during a raid on Canton about a year ago. "Cut his head off!" yelled the 600.

Prisoner Yao Pao-yu, a "cultural spy," was charged with maltreating students while serving as a director of education. Chao Tung's crime went back to 1927; he was said to have killed 40 members of the Communist Party and 24 members of the Soviet consulate staff. On & on ran the accusations, followed by chants of "Let's use them for targets!"

"Shoot Them All!" Judge Huang wound up the trial by pronouncing the death sentence for all 198 prisoners.

Vice Mayor Chu Kwang to the crowd: "Shall we shoot all these counter-revolutionaries?"

The chorus: "Shoot them all!"

The vice mayor: "Should these counter-revolutionaries be made targets for our guns?"

The chorus: "Make them targets!" The vice mayor: "These verdicts are entirely correct and righteous. They are according to the people's opinion."

The 198 were hauled off for immediate execution at Floating Blossom Bridge, a place so named because of the fallen petals that used to float downstream under a bridge which once spanned the Pearl River at that spot. After the shootings, the public was allowed to inspect the corpses. Canton's Communist press later reported that many spectators kicked and spat on the bodies. The spectators were, explained the Communist press, "angry still."

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