Evening star., 1943-07-07
Chino's Seventh Year

FOR emma LQlS is an anniversary
at once grim and glorious. 1t marks
the start of the seventh year in its
life-and-death struggle against Jap
anese aggreSsion-the most terrible
ordeal in even its age-long history.
1t was on July 7, 1887, that the Japa-
nese troops fired on a Chinese de-
tachment guarding the famous
Marco Polo Bridge on the outskirts
of Peiping. That brazen provocation
was the spark which exploded the
accumulated magazine of Chinese
resentment, heaped high by six pre-
vious years of Japanese attacks and
humiliations extending back at least
to the SEIZURE of Manchuria in 1881.
The Marco Polo skirmish was the
proverbial last straw that broke the
back of chinese patience. "Now,"
announced Generalissimo Chang
Kai-shek to his compatriotS, I'VE can
endure it no longer. We will give
way no more"
The Chinese leaders knew what
they were up against. They were
we'll aware that they could not face
in open battle the might of the Japa-
nese war machine. The best they
could do was to fight delaying ac-
tions with the best of their troops
while they traded space for time"
in the most stupendous mass mi
grafton in human annals. Literally
tens of millions of Chinese, carrying
with them everything from cherished
personal possessions to factory equip
ment, moved from the coastal cities
and open river valleys foredoomed to
japanese occupation into the noun
famous interior, there to maintain
themselves behind a screen of resist
ance wherein topography prevented
the Japanese from using their mech
anized superiority. That was the
first phase of the war. BY the au-
tumn of 1888. the japanese had
reached pproximately the present
limits of their occupation, with the
richest parts of China in their hands
and an effective coastal blockade es-
tablished. Free China was virtually
Isolated.
The japanese boaSted that they
had won a contest which they re-
fused to dignity with the name of
war, but termed merely "the China
Incident Most resident foreigners
doubted Chinese ability long to hold
out. Chinas bitterest blow was when
Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor at
last brought allies, only to have the
Burma road soon closed by the
volcanic tide of Japanese conquest
which threatened the whole Far and
Middle East. Then began China's
darkest period. Worn down by years
of desolating war, deprived of any
foreign aid, and exposed to the raw
ages of economic imitation, the sit
uation has been desperate indeed.
Fear of collapse of Chinese morale
has spurred Allied efforts to do what
ever was possible by such improvised
expedients as the air transport serv-
ice over the lofty Himalayas, the
building up of an American air force,
and credits to bolster the Chungking
governments sagging currency. Yet
all this has done little materially to
meet China's crying needs.
Nevertheless, China enters its sew
enth year of war with renewed hope,
largely due to the encouragement
derived from increasing Allied activ-
ity in the Pacific and the prospect of
real offensive against Burma or
Malaga at the end of the monsoon
rains next autumn. The indomit-
able spirit of the Chinese armies was
shown by their recent victories over
the Japanese in the middle Yangtse
victories aided strongly by Ameri-
can planes. In an address to the
Chinese people issued on the eve of
the seventh war anniversary, the
Generalissimo assured his compa-
triots that they had reached the
summit of their ordeal and that ia
pans defeat was not more than two
years away. Thus does Free China
set its face toward the next stage in
it's war of liberation and regenera-
ton.