Appetite in Paradise

A fresh pulse of jingoism shot through the Japanese Army last month when, to wipe out the shaming of the Army's Director of Military Affairs by a fire-eating lieutenant-colonel, mild War Minister General Senjuro Hayashi resigned to make way for less mild General Yoshiyuki Kawashima. Since a Japanese officer's patriotism is measured by his appetite for Chinese territory, patriotic Major General Hayao Tada, whose appetite is enormous, was sent to sprawling, international Tientsin to command the Japanese garrisons in North China. Last week voracious General Tada called in 20 Japanese correspondents to give them a pamphlet and his views on how much of China Japan should swallow.

Hors-d'oeuvre to this gigantic meal must be, according to the General, China's sole official political party, the Kuomintang (National People's Party), and China's Dictator, General Chiang Kaishek. These must be "overthrown.''

This, the general predicted, will result in "a paradise of live-&-let-live" in China. "A new political setup, independent of Nanking politically as well as economically, is necessary in North China. This region has annual revenues exceeding $130,000,000--ample for an independent State."

The magnificence of General Tada's appetite was hinted in one line: "Japan's continental policy aims at the salvation of China's 400,000,000 exploited humans and Japan will exterminate any one obstructing her."

Salvation, the General indicated, meant also saving China from Soviet Russia. At this, able Soviet Journalist Karl Radek editorialized in Iventis, "Japanese make a mistake if they let their giddiness over successes against China lead them to think Russia would be an equally easy victim." To a Japanese rumor that Russia was on the verge of annexing vast Sinkiang Province in Western China as a Soviet republic, the Soviet news agency Tass spluttered, "Shameful, provocative lies, apparently manufactured by those circles which specialize in forming so-called 'independent governments' in Chinese provinces."

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