The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-11-04
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THE "5 5xxASsxsafH y"
Mars Grins.

diers are without medical attention.
Conditions in the regions where fight
ing takes place are described as frightful by
eye witnesses and correspondents. The car
mage and slaughter is of the most brutal and
sangunary type. Until few days ago there
were plenty of good-natured joking comments
ON the Chinese Civil war. The joke is wear
| ing off and instead appears the dreadful
spectre of Mars with his savage, ferocious
dogs unleashed. Yet China is not militaristic
at heart. A thousand years ago when the
country was threatened by ambitious Mon
gols, Lii Tai Peh exclaimed: Accused be
war! Accused the work Of weapons! The
sage has nothing to do with these follies. y
This contention seems to rise as a refrain also
| from all the utterances of western men of
learning since Europe began to have a COM
mon life. In the days of the renaissance the
great humanists, whose respective countries
were at war, exchanged their regrets, and of
fered mutual philosophical solace against the
murderous illusions of their less instructed
fellows. In our days we would brand such
people as defeatists, pacifists and traitors,
while hiding behind facile my Country,
Right or Wrong" What is taking place in
China is nothing but preposterous barbarism.
And the curious inquirer may well wonder
how peaceful, soil-toiling people like the
Chinese can engage in such stupid, western
procedure and he may also ponder on the
question, which of the Christian nations is
supplying the Chinese with arms? For with
out arms there would be no war.
On The Alert. .--
Berlin is lavish in its praise for the Rus
sian ballet dancers who have arrived from
Moscow under the direction of Michael Mord-
kin, formerly partner to Anna Pavlowa. The
programs varying from the strictly classical
| to the most eccentric numbers are scoring
tremendous success. Lydia Semeonovna and
the Daghilieff ballet plan an extensive tour.
They are going to France and Later to
America. They cannot go to Spain. Gen.
Primo de Rivera is afraid that the young
ladies may hide a bewhiskered Bolshevlk in
their packing trunks. That would be q
calamity. Or else that some Spanish young
journalist may be persuaded Of the beauty
of the communist cause by watching the
graceful curving symmetry Of the dreamy
eyed Muscovites. One can never know. Cen
eral de Rivera is no mean watchdog. A
champion of liberty who knows that the cost
of freedom is eternal vigilance.
Rebel Or Patriot.
Osman Dinga, the Fuzzy Wuzzy of Kip
lings poem, has just been released from
prison after spending there nearly y years.
He is nearly 100 years old and has set out
to make a pilgrimage to the holy places Oh
Islam. Dinga was one of the lieutenants OF
the Mahdi, who opposed the British conquest
of the Sudan under Kitchener quarter CEN
tury ago. During one of the attacks made
by the mullahs, Fuzzy Wuzzy led the bowling
assagay singing hordes of savages, who raced
with fanatic ferocity into the fire and bayo-
nets of the English and accomplished that
unheard-of feat, breaking a British square.
This achievement of the enemy appealed to
the sporting spirit of the British and Dinga
was immortalized in Kipling's poem. 1t was
through the treachery of some Arab sheiks
that Fuzzy Wuzzy was captured. Twenty
two years he spent in a mud hut, with an
bour or so of physical exercise day. That
was the price he paid for the madness" of
defending his native land and the independ-
ence of his people against a world empire
For it remains a question if such man is
rebel or patriot.
A Victory.
Karakan, star pupil and disciple OF
George Tchitcherin, the soviet minister OF
foreign affairs, is a credit to the master. AS
ambassador to China he has taken advantage
of the civil war in that country and hoisted
the red flag on the railway offices and other
buildings of the Chinese Eastern railway
This was done in cooperation with the Man
Ichurian ruler, Chang-Tso Lin. The old
Czarist officials who were operating the road
which taps a highly-productive region, were
arrested and Karakan wired to Moscow that
he had accomplished a new victory for the
international working class. The railwa!
and the districts through which it runs, ricf
in mineral resources and agriculture, will b.
exploited in the best approved capitals
manner, however. All, but there is diff
ference after ALL say the comrades. "Ih'
railway and our influence in the Manchurial
regions will be exploited to aid in the VI,
building of the socialist commonwealth
This, translated into everyday Language
means that the profits derived from the oper
alton of the extensive territory will not b.
employed to feed the starving, ragged muzJlks
but to strengthen communist propagahu'
abroad. e..