The Long Way Back

On to the bare floodlit stage of Nanking's National Assembly hall strode the Gimo, erect and austere in five-starred military khaki. He took his stand under a backdrop portrait of Sun Yat-sen while 2,500 Assembly delegates applauded.Then Chiang Kai-shek reported on the state of the nation.

For more than an hour and a half he spoke in his high-pitched Chekiang accent. He used no prepared text, for he needed none. In all the world no man knew better than Chiang that China's portion was present pain and future hope. He spoke first of the pain: "I confess seven of the government's best divisions were destroyed in Manchuria. They were my best armies--armies that under my command accomplished the revolutionary campaign with glory."

"Big-Eat-Little." Then the Gimo laid down the new line of strategy, assayed the nation's resources to win the ultimate battle. "We have made serious military mistakes," he conceded. No longer would his armies attempt to defend all of the nation at once. They would strike, with superior strength, at strategic points of their own choosing, henceforth fight a war of "big-eat-little." The immediate objective was a limited one: "I guarantee within six months to annihilate all Communists below the Yellow River." Had he written off Manchuria? He had not ("in 60 years the Reds will not conquer China"), but the way back would be long.

Even now the republic was making up its losses in men. And with China's assets in hand and $463,000,000 of aid pledged by the U.S., "the prospects of economic life are brighter than ever." Real dangers remained to be faced, but they were more psychological than material, a combination of criticism abroad and Communist propaganda at home. Affirmed the Gimo: "I have faith."

"The True Picture." He had told his audience what most of them wanted to believe and they applauded him thunderously. But not all. A Kaifeng delegate piped that the report was "incomplete and inadequate." Pandemonium erupted in the hall. A woman member from Honan sobbed: "Honan is almost entirely in Communist hands. We must have the true picture."

Last week that picture was dark and doubtful. Along the east-west Lunghai Railway the government suffered its great est loss. Twenty thousand Communists under General Cheng Keng fought their way for the second time into Loyang, a major Nationalist bastion in Honan.

In Manchuria, nine Communist divisions were pushing toward Tahushan, 65 miles southwest of the government's enclave at Mukden. Capture of Tahushan would block Nationalist efforts to reopen land communications with the Mukden forces. In Shantung, the north coast cities of Weihaiwei, Lungkow and Tengchow had been evacuated by government troops. To the northwest the Reds pressed down on the steadily narrowing Paotow-Tientsin corridor, and wealthy citizens sold their belongings for wads of paper money that they hoped would pay for their flight south.

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