Evening star., 1938-06-13
s'Unlicensed Inhumanity.'

Making full allowance for her appear
ance as special pleader and for the
wishful thinking that inspires her argu-
ment, Nine. Chang Kai-shek's article in
The Sunday Star, THE Tragedy of
China" which is to be followed by others
this week, is perhaps the most powerful
and persuasive plea on her stricken
country's behalf yet to come to the at
tention of American readers. The late
Thomas B. Reed once described elo-
quence as logic on fire" The Wellesley
bred wife of China's generaissimo pro-
duces masterpiece Of polemical English
that fully measures up to the one time
Speakers definition
Mayling Soong Chang has turned out
more than notable newspaper article.
1t is state paper. Because of its bold
Indictment of the democracies of the
world, especially those which pretended
that the League Of Nations was bulwark
of protection for weaker states against
aggression, Nine. Chang Kai-shek's ar
ity" in China, which is tolerated in Eu-
rope and America in the name of
realism" is couched in terms which
statesmen in London, Paris and WASH
ington can only ignore to their enduring
embarrassment. The first lady of China
puts them on the spot.
If the statement Of her country's case
and plight were merely lamentation and
plea, it would command attention in all
the democratic capitals. But it goes far
beyond that 1t contains an only thinly
yelled threat that If the western nations
and their governments persist in remain
ing realistic" is to say, in letting
China stew in its sanguinary juice-the
Chinese may turn realistic, too. Note
this plain speaking:
''The Indifference of the democracies
is causing many here to wonder whether
China would not be better off if it also
became brazenly realistic and entered
the ranks OF the international political
tugglers and contortionists. This school
asks, with some justice, it must be ad-
mitted, that If the League can be tossed
into the air, with bomb Of lost sover-
company, as pieces of juggler's property,
and can clumsily crash to the floor in the
tossing and be metaphorically lost down
q crack, without any hoots affecting the
{,,r yx,l,vy Oh ,of Fou
things about and eventually drag from
the magical hat Of expediency bouquet
Of agreements with some other nation
which would be an adornment to any in
ternational collection Of realistic docu-
ments?
Agreements with some other nation
is Nine. Chiang's euphonious way Of
saying that the democracies may drive
China reluctantly, but in a desperate
spirit of self-preservation, into the arms
of Soviet Russia. What the generals
simo's consort clearly asks the Occident
to consider is whether it thinks it wise
to become an accessory to the Communi-
zation of Asia. That is contingency Of
even greater gravity for Japan than for
the remote non-Asiatic world.
Mayling Soong Chang warns the West,
too, that victorious Japan will, eventu-
ally, leave her footprints and her bomb
prints not only upon the earth of China
and the sands of time but upon the soil
and character of many accidentally con-
trolled lands" Page Britain in India
and Hong Kong" Nine. Chang seems to
say, France in Indo-China, the Neither
lands in the Dutch East Indies-and the
United States in the Philippines"