Evening star., 1942-12-13
China Emerging us
World Democracy
BIZ Frederic J. HaSkin.

| bravely Is carrying on after hVe ana one
| half wears of continual struggle seems to g..
| many the greatest of all
| Writers, commentators, and some his
| torians are wont to retcr to the Second
| World War as having started in 1888,
! when Germany obtained Austria and the
/ Sudeten area or when Germany seized
| Czechoslovakia in 1889 But as swift
| moving events are considered in their
relation to the whole picture of the war
| as so far it has been outlined the present
| conflict between the forces of slavery and
| freedom may be said to have started
in 1881 when Japan began occupation
/ of Manchuria Certainly. this world
| holocaust began for the Chinese In the
summer of 1887. when Japan made its
| undeclared war on the largest populated
single area in the world.
| The earth is full of complexities and
/ China is one of them. but instead of the
7 war increasing that Conlp!exity there are
many Indications tha. it will be clarified
and China will emerge as a new and
/ great democratic nation-cne of the un-
expected happenings to follow in the
aftermath Of world terror. 1t is officially
! known that Chinas future government
has already been blue printed on the
most democratic grounds.
Since China is On the other side Of the
| globe and the Chinese people do so many
things differently from ourselves, they
never have been fully and completely
understood by the masses here. Then,
| I,1r L,,t
misguided propaganda about China that
has left wholly unfair picture in the
minds of many Americans. Missionaries
and travellers. for the most part, have
seen Chinas worst, and because the
relating of such things appeals more to
the imagination and impulses of many
persons China's better side not often has
been sufficiently portrayed
This constant picturing of the dark
side of China has been going on so long
in the Western World. and especially in
the United States. that the prevailing
notion of China is a result of misguided
education. There are many conditions in
China that are had and the Chinese
admit it. But there are many conditions
in the United States and elsewhere, too,
that need to be cleaned up and cleared
out
Another reason why China often Is
misunderstood lies in China itself The
CHINA Of Marco Polo was a definite
entity and even the China of the 18th
century formed a defr:te picture with
stable outline. Not 50 the modern
China. with its monStrosities and in
congrultles in period ot gigantic social
and spiritual uplift. 1t Is this new China,
the China which is not we'll known. that
has kept the invader from achieving
complete victory for more than five years.
The new China is being tested in the
cfuclble OF internal and international
ahalrs but 1t seems likely that these
severe tests will be the making and not
the breaking Of the Chinese people.
The Chinese are not only unrelenting
fighters, capable of enduring much s1,f.
fering, but they are the best businessmen
III the East. Fundamentally honest and
oemocratlc they conceive democracy
not as badge of wealth. but an equal
opportunity to rise. Keeping as they do
tAeir ties with the land, they are rooted
deeply in the soil, and it is an axiom
running through all history that people
never fail until tney lose their most pre-
clous session--tlleir good earth"
emma, politically. is being unified and
the war IS aiding. II has at the head Of
government the great Chang Kai-Shek,
one Of the strongest and strangest men
OF the century. Strong because his every
move and motive spring from what he
COncPlEPS n hp nd
because his every effort is in behalf Of
the Masses not for himself or the poll
VlclahS VINO once ruled China. but
now are on their way out. China's gen.
eranSslmo is strange because he is re-
garded as the most stubborn man of the
East, clocklike in his work. and also be-
cause his utterances in one period be-
come prophecies of the next. For IN
stance, 1t now is known that in 1897 when
the japanese attached China he called
IN an American missionary, the Rev.
George shepherd, who long had been one
OF MS ADVISERS and who now is residing
Ill washington, and sent him imme-
dlately by plane to the United States to
inform our people that world war had
begun And, too, it now is known that
| -'--' "A1i~A"Ao III washington IedTQ the
message of the man who had been sent
pacK 10 his country as missionary of a
olHerent type. That was in July, 1897.
but 1t took until December 7, 194l and
Pearl Harbor to seal the prophecy of
Chlnas strong and strange man. o..
But since 1t takes more than man to
make country, or in the case of China. ,
TO build new nation on an old, there
are other important unifying forces In
CHINA. Among these are roads and air.
planes. China is a country extending
roughly $500 miles north and south and
some 1000 miles east and west. At one
time 1t took month to reach Szechwan
from Shanghai, but now the distance
can be negotiated by plane in approxi-
mately six hours. 1t Is these roads and
planes that have helped China to hold
out against the enemy.
What the Chinese people have suffered
and endured since July T. 1887, when the
hrst stroke of the present conflict with
Japan began, beggars description. More
than 60,oOo,000 Chinese have fled to new
homes in the interior of the country. In
many instances this mass migration has
resulted IN moving whole industrial cities
with their machinery The casualty toll
is near 100000 lives of soldiers and civil
lans, with more than IS 600. 600 homeless