Evening star., 1939-02-05
Bv Richard Halliburton.

Ing for Seagoing Chinese junk IN
which I can cross the Pacific to the
San Francisco Fair. In pre-War
days Shanghai was headquarters fol-
thousands of junks-all shapes, sizes
and colors. The river junks came
down the Yangtze bringing count
less tons of cargo to China greatest
metropolis, and there the sea junks
waited, to distribute this cargo to
the coastal cities. Before Japan's
ermy arrived. Shanghai was the
fifth port of the world, New York
London, Liverpool, Hamburg being
the only ports greater. From Shang-
hai's 1000 junks surely-so it seemed
to mel could find just what !
wanted
But I've spent two full days ex-
ploring the river harbor, and !
haven't come upon a single junk
worth considering. Ninety per cent
of the ships (and all the good ones)
that used to call Shanghai home
have fled. or been sunk, or COM
mandeered by the japanese. Those
remaining are mostly derelicts which
will never again put out to sea. So,
before long, l must continue my
quest down the Chinese coast, per-
haps in FoochoW or in Hong Kong.
But having reached this city, this
bombed and burned and embattled
city, I'm by no means so occupied
with junks that I've failed to notice
the state of affairs here
Shanghai was never beautiful AS
commercial as Chicago, and show
ing the same signs of rapid growth,
1t spreads over plain as fiat as the
Illinois prairie Not a single hill
gives it distinction. Scarcely a tree
ever graced its teeming streets. In
the commercial center tall build
ings house the trade of every nation
on earth-and most of these build
1ngs are ugly. In the small shopping
centers and the residential sections
the buildings are less tall, but no
less ugly. The Wangpoo River and
SoochoW Creek-two copies large
and small, of the Chicago Drainage
Canal-twist through the city, and
do not help the scenery.
Sometime before the present war
the Chinese authorities of Shanghai
decided it was time to do something
about all this drabness. Their meth
ods were less drastic than Japan's
They selected site miles from the
business section, in the open fields
at the end of fine new road, and
oegan civic center. Superb mod
ern buildings rose there, STYLED
after China's historic architecture
and Shanghai-as a truly national
Chinese city, yet still working in
harmony with the foreign settle
ments-was about to come of age.
Symbol Razed.
Yesterday saw this civic center
which once offered so much promise
Alas, the sweeping steps, shining
white walls and massive tile roofs
OF this group of buildings made per-
fect targets for the Japanese guns
The japanese realized that these
particular structures, so new and
strongly built, symbolized the pro-
gressive modern spirit of China
symbolized the national order and
patriotism to which China aspired
And Japan knew that this spirit,
this pride, must be crushed if
China were to be defeated. And SO
every form of destruction was
hurled at the symbol. The civic
center was pounded numerically
but 1t did not collapse. Though
sadly battered, it still stands.
To reach this part of Shanghai,
my guide "a resident American
frienO drove me through barbed-
wire barriers into the Japanese
controlled areas. At every turning
he had to show his permits to arro-
CANT japanese guards, and had to
bully or cozen them into letting us
pass, for suspicion of inquisitive
foreigners is their guiding rule.
Frequently We detoured to avoid
chasms which land mines had left
In the pavement, or crossed streams
by temporary bridges that replaced
blasted structures. At first our
route lay along the bank of Soochow
Creek, east Of which everything fell
to the invaders after terrific fight
Ing. When the Chinese troops made
their last desperate stand here and
lost, the creek was damned up by
the bodies of fleeing soldiers and
civilians. They never reached the
farther bank, but were drowned or
shot by machine guns while they
swan. Had they been able to strug-
gle another 10 yards-to the safety
Of the international Settlement
thousands would have lived.
Beyond the creek we wandered
through street after street of what
used to be Chapel. I remembered
this from previous visit as a
crowded quarter of homes and lit
tie workshops, sWarming with that
confusion of coolies and babies,
merchants and marketing house
wives, which is so typically-and so
nolSlly-Chinese Now, what still
ness. Gone was the bustling
o-oOi ibCl VI d ildlI lllllllOll liulIlhIlo
running the errands of ordinary
life. Everything was very neat.
Indeed, cannot imagine modern
ruins anywhere looking tidier. The
debris of fallen buildings had been
shoveled out of the streets. There
we're no bodies lying about. Nothing
still burned; gone were the smoke,
the stencil, the poison gas; no
danger lurked in any form. More
than II months had elapsed since
the japanese saved" Chapel from
Its Chinese defenders, and all was
peaceful, as the dead are peaceful.
Along many of the streets we
passed between parallel bulwarks of
sandbags. Here said my guide,
"the armies faced each other, eight
yards apart and fought some of the
fiercest battles of the war-just to