Home to Shanghai

He had never learned to speak Chinese (or even pronounce proper names), yet he was the only man who dared criticize Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek to his face. For 44 years he had been immersed in Chinese affairs, first as a correspondent and then as confidant, adviser and sometimes as policymaker. In March, when U.S. Navy doctors in Honolulu told him he could not survive a lung and stomach cancer aggravated by long internment in a Japanese prison camp, his only wish was to die in China.

Last week it was granted. As it must to all men, Death came to William Henry Donald--"Donald of China"--at Shanghai's famous old Country Hospital.

Born in New South Wales in 1875,

Donald came to Hong Kong in 1902 from Sydney and got a job on the China Mail because its editor insisted on having one teetotaling reporter. He covered the 1911 revolution, and then, inspired by the events he had witnessed, became Dr. Sun Yat-sen's adviser. In the early '30s Donald joined the Generalissimo and Mme. Chiang Ka-shek, and in 1936 helped negotiate Chiang's release in the Sian kidnaping incident.

But Donald never "went Chinese." And in 1940, after Hitler attacked Britain, the speeches he wrote for the Generalissimo became more & more anti-German. One night the Gissimo sent back a speech with a message: "I'm not at war with Hitler." Donald returned it with a crisp note: "I am." After that, despite Mme. Chiang's intercession, Donald thought it best to leave China.

In the fall of 1941, in response to a new plea from Mme. Chiang, he attempted to return, was caught by the Japanese in Manila, where he signed the internment register as "William Donald of Scotland." A Jap officer, tipped off that Donald was in the camp, looked at his name and said: "This is not the man. We are looking for W. H. Donald of Australia."

This week the Japs might have rejoiced at Donald's death (and their indirect responsibility for it), but for the fact that he had outlived their Empire.

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