Evening star., 1939-05-21

up buildings there unObtruslvely. Inc govern
ment put its reserves of silver and gold and
ammunition there. Weather Chinese made
quiet arrangements for their families and
businesses beyond the mountains of Central
China.
When Japan actually attacked there was
sharp military resistance, but short one
1t became evident Immediately that China
had almost no adequate antiaircraft guns
with which to fight off the inoessant bombing
planes of the japanese. She had little heavy
artillery, and shortage of all military neoes
sites. Her soldiers were brave and daring,
but they lacked training and the leadership
was weak. As soon as the test had been made
and this was proved, the Chinese at once re-
sorted to their old ways of resistance. Instead
of meeting the japanese openly, they relied
upon the guerrilla technique which has been
theirs for centuries, and began harassing the
Japanese with better results than anyone
knows.
But the real Chinese resistance is the simple
one of survival "Of the thirty-six ways of
escape" popular old Chinese proverb says,
with great philosophy the Chinese nation has
run away They gave up their cities, for they
have never considered their cities of vital
importance to the nation. Cities are houses,
and houses can be built again. They left their
lands, knowing that land cannot really be
taken away, since the survivor always has it
in the end And men. women and children,
rich and poor, began a great migration to
the West.
China today is comparable to what our
own America was in the days when the Missis-
sippi divided it into the known and the un-
known. The eastern strip of China, which
faces the Pacific, is modern China There the
great modern cities were growing up. Tientsin.
Shanghai, Marking. Hankow. Canton - in
this strip were the modern universities and
the new modem industries. Here all the west
ern-educated Chinese lived Railroads, motor
roads, buses, airplanes - you could see them
all in Eastern China Much of it was not too
different from the United States.
But Western China was totally different
Beyond the Yangt1e Cuges was China as
medieval as she had ever been. The people
lived untouched by modern knowledge, as
apart from the modem world as though Eu-
rope and America and Japan. and indeed
Eastern China itself. never were. l used to
dream good deal about that inner untouched
China A few times had gone into it. 1t was
a strange and beautiful country. vast ooun-
try. almost as large as the whole of the United
States People there often had not even heard
of automobiles Some of them thought China
was still an empire and that the great old
Empress Tsu Hsi still ruled eternal in Peking
The cities were made of cobbled winding
streets and low-roofed houses and courts.
Women still bound their feet and few knew
how to read. Over every part of it hung the
long deep peace of undisturbed centuries.
Twas 50 charmed by it that when went
out again into the modern China of the East.
l could not keep from talking about it. and
especially to young Chinese, who. fresh from
American and European universities. hung
about Shanghai and Marking trying to find
work.
why don't you 60 West?" urged. There
are no doctors, no engineers. no competition
in the West You'd have it all to yourself"
They always said. I'VE don't want to 90
back into the medieval ages. thank you.
We'd rather travel by train than by cart and
by an automobile instead of wheelbarrow."
Thus the two parts of China remained as
separate as two continents - and more, for
A. 1,,