Evening star., 1937-12-24
GEN. CHANG TURNS.
TO CHINESE REDS|
Believed Astute Enough to
Make Compromise Suit
able to Moscow.
BY REGINALD SWEETLAND,
Chicago Daily News Correspondent.

Chicago Daily News Correspondent.
SHANGHAI, Dec. "a. - Japan,
which, according to her spokesmen, is
warning against China to save China
from Communism, is doirg neat lit
tie jop of throwing China into the
arms of Russia.
Generalissimo Chang Kai-shek's
German-trained Nationalist division,
which for the past five or six years got
its training fighting the Communist
armies under the Communist generals,
Mao Tse-tung and Chu Teh, today are
fighting shoulder to shoulder with
these same Communist armies in a
vain attempt to stem the Japanese
advance
Gen Mao, who has now been ad-
mitted as member of the Supreme
War Council on an equal basis with
Generalissimo Chang Kai-shek, daily
consults and advises Chang Yet
hitherto for the past few years
Chiang's armies had been bounding
Mao and Chu Teh half across the map
Of China.
Chao Political Adviser.
AS Gen. Mao represents the military
affairs of the Chinese Communist
party, so does Chao En-lai represent
the political affairs of the Chinese
Communist party. Chang Kai-shek
held Chao En-lai in Nanking Jail for
months and then released him dur
ing the present war. Chao is now in
Hankow as chief political adviser of
the Communist party. Opposite him
in the Kuomintang camp (National
Government party) is Wang Ching
wei, foreign n-educated Chinese, who at
the moment is Chiang's political
spokesman.
Governing China today, then, these
four men stand supreme-Chiang Kai-
shek as the kuomintang's military
chief and commander in chief of the
Chinese armies. Wang Ching-wei as
Kuomintang head of the political
phase, Gen. Mao Tse-tung as the
Communist army head and Chao En-
iai as tie Communist party's political
spokesman.
The simple fact of the matter is
this: To keep China united then it
is essential for Chang Kai-shek to
take into his councils the radical ele-
ment. The question is, just how rad
ical or how far Communist will
China go?
Reliance on Moscow Grows.
AS hope for assistance from the
League of Nations, as well as Amer
lea, dwindles, so China's reliance upon
Moscow increases. On the other hand,
Russia will only help China provided
those Chinese leaders known to be
communistically inclined are given
leading roles in the Chinese govern
ment. This is exactly what is hap
pening today.
There is plenty of evidence of Rus
sian material help to China, while
Chinese airdromes are gradually be-
ing filed with Soviet planes and
Soviet flyers, which the japanese with
great facility-at least by tongue
shoot down and destroy.
Japan is thoroughly aware of the
extent of such Soviet assistance, and
this explains why she bombed Lam
chow in distant Shensi Province, 400
miles from the nearest japanese air.
base at Taiyuan. Lancnow, on the
mair highway between China and
Russia, was the assembly point for
Soviet planes en- route to Chinese air
fields.
Own Style of Communism.
How far radical will Chang Kali
shek permit his government to go?
Opinion, as l have been able to
gather it, is that China is Que for it's
own adapted style of Communism,
though at the moment Chao En-lai
is insisting upon the naturalization
of all industries and huge civilian
armies united in a mass front.
not prepared to go all the way in
this program. Russia had vast ex-
perience with the difficulties of try
ing the Communist experiment in
China. These experiments failed
Therefore, while China and Russia
are talking Communism, it really
means that they are getting together
from the Chinese point of view, with
China modifying her own Communist
program to suit local Chinese condi-
tions.
The world we'll knows that China is
in the greatest need OF political and
sociological development. On the
other hand, when Japan presents to
the world the picture of a Com
munistic China, Japan is painting
picture Of boy that does no justice
either to China's powers of absorp-
tion or to MoscoW's realization of
Moscows own shortcomings in China
after failures extending over 10 years.
New Line Is East and West.
Also it must be taken into con-
sideration that the world long believed
that Japan intended to divide China
into north and south, with Japan
controlling the north. The present
situation warrants revision of this
picture. Presently it appears that
Japan intends to divide China into
east and west. Draw a line directly
north to south from Peking through |
Hankow to Canton; everything east
OF that line is coming under japanese
military control, while the Chinese
government gradually recedes west
ward and westward.
Through Shensi Province, through
Chinese Turkestan, all roads and air.
ways lead to Russia. If Chang Kai-
shek cannot make suitable COM
promise with the Soviet-supported
Chinese Communist party, then either
he must step out or else sue for
peace. At present it appears he is
astute enough to make a political
compromise with the Chinese Com
munists to the extent of putting
brand of adapted Communism on the
Chinese market sufficiently agreeable
to Moscow to earn Moscow's material
assistance, but beyond that little that
is ultra radical
tCopyrisht by Chicago Daily News, 1037J
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