Dragons & Splendor

The bygone splendor of Imperial China seemed to reawaken, for a day last week, at the ancient Imperial Capital of Nanking. Dragons helped to create the illusion--paper dragons. They flew from every pole and flagstaff, noses nuzzling the wind, mouths open and gulping the breezes which distended their long writhing, wriggling bodies. Above all flew the White Star of the new and democratic Nationalist Government;* but the dragons were yellow as of gold, Ming yellow, Manchu yellow, Imperial yellow.

The myriad dragons and much red-white-&-blue bunting were evoked by a great and triumphal occasion. The Nationalist Generalissimo and his Generals had come to celebrate with the Nationalist Prime Minister and his statesmen the now completed conquest by Nationalism of all China. Amid what Chinese newspapermen called "scenes of martial splendor" there assembled, last week, the Fifth Congress of the Kuomintang, the Nationalist political organization.

Manchuria Adheres. The triumph of Nationalism was accentuated, last week, when the Dictator of Manchuria, Marshal Chiang Hsueh-liang, cabled to Nanking that he will raise the White Star above his 19,000,000 Manchurians, the last Chinamen to hold out against the Nationalists.

Chiang & Tan. The Generalissimo of Nationalism is Chiang Kaishek, small-boned, lithe, decisive; and the Prime Minister is wily Tan Yin-kai. Nominally they are the executive masters of more than twice as many humans as are encompassed by the sway of President Calvin Coolidge.

Prime Minister Tan, in his opening address to the Nationalist Congress, postulated and proclaimed by a sweeping gesture of both arms, "the unity of all China, from Siberia to Burma!"

Feng & Yen. At present the two Chinese Men of Power are Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang and Marshal Yen Hsi-shan.

Feng has been reviled for "treachery." But last week Marshal Feng, devout Christian, gave at Nanking a most pious assurance that he and his huge private army (TIME, July 2) will remain ever true to Nationalism.

Marshal Yen Hsi-shan has built up, as the famed "Model Governor" of Shansi Province, a national reputation for probity. Last week he said that the pangs of appendicitis prevented him from leaving his Provincial Capital to participate in the celebration at Nanking.

Only very debased Chinese thereupon suggested that Yen was meditating treachery against Nationalism. The view of Men of Property was that China's honest Yen was tactfully manifesting a touch of pique. To this he has good right, for, although his troops bore a major portion of the brunt in Nationalism's capture of Peking (TIME, June 18, 25), and although Governor Yen was appointed Commissioner for the Peking Area, he has now been virtually supplanted in Pekingese authority by the bumptious and pushing General Li Chi-shen, Commander of the Peking Garrison.

Salute Not Returned. So joyously grateful were the Chinese Nationalists, last week, at the defacto recognition of their government by the U. S. (TIME, Aug. 6), that when Admiral Mark Lambert Bristol, Commander of the U. S. Asiatic Fleet, steamed past Nanking he was accorded a rousing salute of 17 guns.

Intense was the mortification of Admiral Bristol when he found that aboard his ship, the small gunboat Mindanao, there was no gun equipped to return the salute with appropriate booms and detonations. Rather than set a machine gun to pip-pip-pipping, the flustered Admiral chose not to return the salute at all, but radioed his apologies to shore.

Rejoicings by Chinamen of the U. S. at Nationalism's triumph found substantial expression, last week, when a $40,000,000 Nationalist Bond issue was eagerly subscribed for.

Pope. Benediction was imparted to all Chinese, last week, by Achille Ambrogio Damiano Ratti, the Most Blessed and Supreme Pontiff Pius XI.

Though the Pope was suffering from a sprained ankle, his deft right hand signed and authorized a circular telegram to Chinese bishops:

"The Holy Father . . . who was the first to treat China not only on a footing of perfect equality but with true and special sympathy . . . is overjoyed and thanks the Almighty for the end of the civil war.

". . . His Holiness hopes that the legitimate aspirations and rights of this most populous country in the world . . . may be recognized.

"His Holiness recommends the Bishops . . . to organize and develop Catholic action in order that the Catholic faithful of both sexes and especially the dear youth, may with prayer and good works contribute toward the peace, social well-being and greatness of their country. . .

"His Holiness finally . . . imparts upon all Chinese his paternal apostolic benediction."

*The flag of Nationalism is red, with a blue field in the upper staff corner, upon which is sewn one white, 12-pointed star.