Evening star., 1939-12-31
All Wars Look About the Same,
Famous News Writer Declares
Describing Invasions of China and Poland Reporter
Asserts That Destruction Follows
One General Pattern
By Lloyd Lehrbas.

Mr.. Lehrbds, Associated Press for
eign correspondent, has just returned
from assignments during which he
spent tUo years couering 1DarS-the
Sino-JapaneSe conflict and Germdny's
tDhirl1Dind conquest of Poland. In the
tolloying story he tells some of the
tragic scenes he witnessed and also
makes some comparisons between
Asiatic and European 1Oartare.
War, whether in an Asia lightly We
neered by western civilization or in the
heart of continental Europe's age-old
culture, tastes, smells, sounds and looks
much the same.
The romantic trappings and heroic
sacrifices of men fighting for conquest
or to defend their good earth give you
the same goose flesh thrills.
The mud vermin, blood and suffering
have nunbing and futile sameness
And pagoda and Polish palace are
both just piles of broken brick and debris
when they crumble beneath bombs.
It is difficult to tell dead Chinese
awkwardly sprawled in rice paddy
from the dead japanese clutching at the
sky on the other side of the sprouting
green rice field.
Dead and mangled Poles wear diff
ferent colored uniform from dead and
mangled Germans.
You get so you don't look any more.
The fighting, still surging over China
after two years and five months. has
killed and wounded more men, women
and children, caused greater and more
widespread destruction and suffering
and brought more tears and terror to
millions than were left in the wake OF
four years of the World War.
Instruments Of Death.
In II days and nights of laundering
guns and lightning attacks in Poland
saw guns, planes and tanks spread more
death and destruction than were Bel
eiurn's black heritage from the World
War.
1t simply takes longer to kill and MAIN
and make homeless wanderers out OF
44000O,OOO Chinese spread over the vast
map of China than it did to kill, capture
or make 100000 Poles men without
country and rub their 1000-year-old
history as nation of the record.
Japanese and German planes swooped
like destroying hawks over Chinese and
Polish cities and towns and human
specks running around desperately to
avoid death were as helpless as barn
yard chickens.
There were not enough bomb shelters
anywhere and Polish clerks and Chinese
peasants dug shallow trenches or ran
into open fields.
You expect soldiers to die, but when
you see plain everyday people dead IN
the ruins of their homes dead in shallow
trenches and dead in harvest fields you
cannot help but feel that you are IN an
age of insanity.
The Chinese and Polish armies fought
back calamity here and there, but were
unable to stand up against the mass and
power of the invaders attacks with their
overwhelming superiority in planes,
tanks, artillery and other fast and death
spraying mechanical and motorized
equipment.
It was human clay throwing itself
against sharp pointed steel.
Eyes Watch From Aloft.
Japanese and German superiority in
the skies enabled them to watch and
know every move of their prey, bomb
and demoralize the population far be-
hind the swaying battle lines and
maneuver motorized columns to smash
every attempt the defenders made to
concentrate their strength, dig IN or
counterattack.
The Chinese and Poles, without aerial
eyes, could only fight back blindly until
they were killed, overwhelmed or sur
rounded and marched into captivity.
And the civilians-men, women and
children-in both China and Poland died
In greater numbers and suffered IN
greater degree than their armies.
There were differences in the wars IN
China and Poland, but they were most
frequently differences merely in point Of
view.
One night I stood behind sandbags
with four United States marines on one
side Of Soochow Greek when Japanese
launched their last attack against the
Chinese "lost battalion" holding out IN
q warehouse after their comrades had
retreated from Chapel.
A few figures scuttled from the ware
-, house across q street and were grabbed
by waiting British outposts on the SET
tlement side and we knew the 'lost bat
talon" had given up the fight and were
beginning to escape, preferring intern
ment to death.
BY daylight nearly 400 had scurried
across that street in threes and fours
From our sandbags we plainly saw the
running Chinese in the foreground and
two angry japanese machine guns
block away commanding the street-and
could see and hear why it was possible
for the Chinese to escape from what ap-
peared to be a suicidal run.
The Japanese machine guns fired
simultaneously instead Of alternately
While the guns were being reloaded the
Chinese ran. Most got across safely