Heaven-Sent Army

Fifty miles northeast of Peiping, Japanese Army planes circled round Miyun last week dropping not only bombs but fluttering clouds of leaflets. They read:

"Asia is for Asiatics!"

"Yellow races wake up!"

"Manchukuo is a paradise!"

"Jehol is like a bud before blossoming!!"

"The Imperial Japanese Army comes from Heaven, loving peace, maintaining justice and suppressing bandits in cooperation with Manchukuo."

"The Japanese Army is the strongest in the world!!!"

Meanwhile the Tokyo War Office proudly announced that Japan would make no further advance south of the Great Wall, that the Heaven-Sent Army had reached all its objectives, finished its task.

Chinese generals in the north were not so sure. Reports reached Tientsin that a new "Western Expedition" of 3,000 Japanese troops was sweeping from conquered Jehol province into Chahar Province, Inner Mongolia. Mayor Chou Ta-wen of Peiping ordered anti-aircraft guns mounted at 20 points round the old city wall. Not that he could keep Japanese troops out, but just to make things more uncomfortable for them. Bets increased that the Heaven-Sent Army will set hollow-eyed Henry Pu Yi on the dragon throne of the old Forbidden City before summer. Peiping universities packed up their libraries and laboratory equipment, prepared to ship them to Shanghai.

It was a wise precaution. U. S. missionaries in the invaded territory south of Jehol kept the wires hot with reports of Japanese bombing, destruction and invasion of U. S. mission property. In Peiping Japanese Charge d' Affaires S. Nakayama announced last week Japan's willingness to make reparations. It had already made a cash settlement for the bombing of a French Catholic Mission south of the Wall ($600, silver) and had paid rental for the occupation by Japanese troops of the U. S. Methodist Mission at Shanhaikwan ($22, gold).

No matter how hard Japan sat on the Chinese dragon's head there was still many a good twitch in its tail. Reports persisted that Lwanchow, strategic city on the south bank of the Lwan River, was still being held last week by its Chinese defenders despite repeated Japanese attacks. Most surprising news came from Berlin.

Out of a special Moscow-Berlin express, supplied by the Soviet Government, piled some 60 Chinese--men, women, children, soldiers, bodyguards and generals. In the centre of the group was that irrepressible jack-in-the-box, droop-whiskered General Ma Chan-shan. Bland General Ma was acclaimed "China's Hero" year and a half ago when he offered the only serious resistance to Japanese invasion of Manchuria (TIME, Nov. 16, 1931 et seq.). Immediately thereafter he put on an exhibition of double-crossing unrivalled even among the Chinese. Having first received thousands of dollars from his patriotic countrymen, he then fled before the Japanese advance, then accepted a reputed bribe of $3,000,000 gold to be first War Minister of the independent Manchukuo puppet state. Next he slipped off to remote Northern Manchuria and announced his undying opposition to Japan again; this time, according to legend, accepting a few contributions from Soviet sources (TIME, April 25, 1932).

Fighting mad, the Japanese Army hunted him relentlessly. Many times his death was officially reported. Last July, Japanese officers even sent bits of clothing and other relics to Tokyo to prove that wily General Ma really had been killed, and earned the official blessing of the Son of Heaven. Early last week word that General Ma had been seen in Moscow reached the U. S. Last week he was alive and visible in Berlin. Seated behind an inlaid tea table in Berlin's Chinese Legation, General Ma received correspondents, announced once again his intention of carrying on the fight against Japan -- by continuing round the world to Shanghai. Said he: "

The American people must understand that the China of today is not the China of 20 years ago. There has been a natural awakening. China will never submit to the Japanese."

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