Mao's Family

Over Yenan, which had hitherto loudly denied any official contact with Moscow, circled Soviet transport planes. To the capital of China's Communists they brought cargoes of medical supplies, two Russian doctors and a tall, youthful Chinese, Mao Yung-fo, second son of Communist Chairman Mao Tse-tung.

Young Mao's smart black Russian boots and well-cut woolen tunic contrasted sharply with the padded garb of Yenan's comrades. He had spent half of his 24 years in Russia, where he had gone in 1935 during the Communist Long March from Central China to the Northwest. His elder brother is still in the Soviet capital.

U.S. newsmen met young Mao at a Yenan ball. Why had he come home? "These are critical days in Chinese history," was the reply. "I wanted to be by my father's side." For tired, ailing, aging (53) Mao the reunion seemed like a tonic.

Another member of the family, comely, slender Mme. Mao Tse-tung, was planning to leave Yenan for dental treatment in Chungking. Asked if she would see Mme. Chiang Kaishek, Mme. Mao smiled and said: "I hope so." She had last been in Nationalist China eight years ago, when she was still Shanghai Actress Lan Ping, one of her country's brightest cinema stars. She left the films for politics, made her way to Yenan. There, in 1939, she became Chairman Mao's fourth wife.

The Communist leader's first wife was a village bride selected for him when he was 14, and subsequently disregarded. No. 2 was a professor's daughter, devoted Yang Kai-hui, mother of Mao's Moscow-schooled sons; she was killed in the civil war of the '20s. No. 3 was a militant propagandist, frail Ho Tzu-ch'un; she is reported to have borne Mao five sons, all left for safety with peasant women during the civil war, and all since dis appeared. In 1938 Mao and Ho separated, later were divorced ; for consolation, ex-Wife Ho went to Moscow.

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