The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-04-02
Behind the Chinese Terror

AS the Chinese war begins to take new life
with the approach of better fighting weather, inter-
ventonist propaganda likewise blossoms forth in all
its sprngtime glory.
Soon the bugaboo of Bolshevism will come down
off the shelf, receive coat of scarlet paint and
start to do its stuff, warning in a suspiciously
familiar voice that the United States would better
join the other powers in an expedition to pacify or
punish China
Not that the Chinese situation has improved dur
ing the winter months. Far from it. 1t has become
CHASTITY beyond words Before us the latest North
China Herald TO arrive from Shanghai and from it;
at the risk of shocking the reader will quotefor
the sake of the issues nvovedthese few lines from
its Swatow correspondent.
&C.. One tells of disembowelled corpses left lying
for days in the Streets being allowed to touch
them and eaten by the dogs; of men who had their
and strips of ffesh cut off and fried and eaten
before their eyes before they Dispatched"
But that is enoughP Quitel The sensbilities
finch and sicken, and yet this IS from the first
page of a conservative, even reactionary, British
weekly which goes into the best British and American
homes in the Orient.
Shocking? Yes. But it is intended to shock for,
told this is THE Communist reign of TERROR
at work in South China.
Nor are our feelings greatly soothcd when we find
elsewhere in the paper that anti-Communist forces
also are at work, slaughtering thousands. old and
young, men, women and even children, many Of them
innocent, by way of retaliation.
Communism Anti Communism? What unmiti-
gated rot! The masses of the Chinese have no more
conception of what Communism means than so many
sheep in a pasture. Nor have they any better idea
of what democracy is or a republic.
All they know is that they come into the world
like guinea pigs work like cattle, suffer like beasts,
go half-naked and half-starved through their al
lotted terms on EARTH then are snufed out in some
God man-nade pestilence other And that is all
Here is vast country of 400 100000 dumbly yearn-
ing people, exploited cruelty and rapaciousy by heart
less military satraps backed by the great foreign
powers some for the trade concessions they can
get and some in the hope of territorial expansion
at Chinas expense.
Here and there is another handful of Chinese,
educated. honest and well-nentioned trying to lift
the masses up, but, thanks to the SYSTEM with the
odds against them we'll nigh insuperable. The bull
of the people poor wretches ignorant beyond belief
and still living in the Middle Ages behave like rats
in trap as their tormentors poke frebrands at them
first from one side of their cage, then another.
Who can blame them if they trample and kill
one another trying to get out?
Beyond peradventure the situation in China is
desperate. But what is the outside world contrbut
ing to make it better? Little besides haunting dis
play of force and then as the great powers arm
or substitute this faction that to keep the country
forever in hot water.
Doubtless Soviet Russia has her finger in the pie,
but so have the other nations stuffing the natives
with theories they can't understand or suppressing
their natural aspirations for reasons beyond their
grasp.
Civilization so-called-has a heavy responsibility
in China. China needs much patient help and with
out 1t she we'll go to smash.
But if she goes she'll likely carry others with her.
for there is no telling what would happens if her
exploters begin to quarrel over the spoils.