Evening star., 1938-05-03
Chiang's Historic Importance
Found as Unifier of Chinese
Strict Disciplinarian, Poor Politician,
Ce,,eraIissimO's Chief Trait Is
Crnnite-Like Puritnnisn.

tence at q time, which the audience
repeats. It Is remarkably like the
reading Of the gospels at q church
service.
Always Gives Lecture.
Then, after silent meditation for
3 minutes. the generalissimo de-
livers lecture which always lasts
at least an hour. and which may last
two hours or longer. He discusses
the military situation, exhorts the Of
ficers and civilian ministers to further
efforts, scolds slackers, points out
abuses and issues moral injunctions.
One recent lecture developed the
theme that not only must soldiers
be trained to make good officers; good
officers. on their side, must learn to
be good soldiers.
During the entire performance every
one in the audience-which includes
most people Of consequence in Han
kow, even cabinet ministers-must re-
main standing
Another dominating trait of the
generalissimo's is a curious natural
shrewdness, intuition which is sharp
and sure. Recently he wanted to
reward the suffering of the wounded.
He knew the excellent common sense
Of the Chinese, their sound feeling
about money and their inclination to
ignore merely spiritual rewards. So
Chang Kai-shek invented a wound
bounty unique among modern armies.
Every private soldier wounded in
action in China gets $40 (Chinese cur
rency) per wound, which is lot more
solid satisfaction than a new stripe on
the uniform. Every wounded company
officer gets $50, every field officer $50,
every general $100. An elaborate sys-
tenn Of checking was devised to pre-
vent people doubling up on wounds
or other frauds. The wound gratuities
are estimated to have cost $l,700,000
since January l. Cheap at the price
Another Of Chang Kai-shek's traits
is stubbornness. Anyone who has read
his own account of the kidnapping at
Sian will know what mean.
Possesses Great Patience.
The generalissimo delivered three
lectures to the Officers Training Corps
at Kuling In 1884 which deserve care
full study. The lectures were conf
dental and secret at the time: recently
they have been made available At
that time, 1884, Gen Chang was pur-
suing his old policy Of apparently
supine submission to Japanese de-
signs. He seemed so yielding that
some Of his best officers. who wanted
to fight Japan, sprouted up in civil
wars. He was called a coward and
weakling.
Yet. in those 1884 lectures, Gen
Chang sketched complete course of
the action that must eventually be
taken against Japan: he cited Japan
as the fragrant and inevitable enemy;
he showed that his whole mind was
tuned to one pitch-the supreme ne
cessity Of getting ready to fight Japan
But never once. in that period. did
Gen. Chang reply to public criticism
Of his alleged defeatist tendencies. So
note we'll one other quality he pos
sesses. . quality he shares with many
/ FChinese-Patience of curiously sub
terranean quality, which conceals the
real end in view.
The generalissimo's present poise,
confidence and apparent peace Of
mind. observed by everybody lately, is
probably due to the freedom Of soul he
must feel that now, at long last, he
Is fighting not his own people, but a
foreign enemy.
Gen. Chang has unified China to
a greater extent than 1t has ever been
unified, almost every one agrees.
That is his historical significance.
He Is greater than his own PERSONAL
ity, greater than any summing up Of
his virtues, because he has become a
SYMBOL symbol of a tremendous
historical process He may have a
very hard time defeating the jap
anese. But he will have proved that
China can rise. hold together, and
fight like q united nation, even II it
gets licked-and maybe it won't get
| licked.
Cheered In Movie Houses.
Evidences of this sense Of unity are
reported by old China hands with
incredulity. People in Canton, in
Hong Kong, rise and cheer in movie
houses when Gen. Chiang's picture is
shown-something previously unheard
Of. Peasants in remote villages. who
never had q sense of national govern