Evening star., 1944-11-01

GEN. HODGES DECORATED
connection with military ope
Aachen," 1t. Gen. Courtney
American 1st Army, is decorat
Gen. Omar Bradley. The Gel
October 26.
people hastily interpreted his recall
as kick in the pants. But. now,
they are beginning to see that he
deserves not only pat on the back
but some sort of unusual recogni-
ton for his long suffering. consci-
entious. loyal, skillful service.
Few fighters have had to absorb
as many blows-legal and otherwise
as 62-year- -old Uncle Joe. He took
them like the champion he is and
kept slugging.
For the past two years. and be-
fore that. American military and
civilian observers have left China
and returned to Washington with
astonishing reports on true condi-
tions under the generalissimo.
AS far back as early 1943 one OBJ
server came out of China and told
me, Il had to see it to believe it..
Only Stilwell could keep going
against such obstacles, political and
otherwise"
He asserted that lease-lend mate
rails were being saved up for the
civil war; that approximately 1,OO0,-
600 of the generalissimo's troops
We're in Northern China, watching
and sparring with the Communists.
Resistance on Token Basis.
He said that Chinese in many Sec
tors were resisting only on a token
basis; that goods were passing, free
ly in many areas, from the Japa-
nese to the Chinese, and vice-versa: !:
that money and letters could easily
be sent into and out of Japanese
occupied centers such as Shanghai
and Hong Kong: that the money
market seemed to be maneuvered
for the benefit OF those in power.
We correspondents knew all of
these things. But we couldn't write
them then.
There remained hope of a change
for the better. 1t was hard to see
how they could become worse.
When first arrived in the China
Burma-India theater in 1912, heard
whispers that many Chinese reports
were not only slanted, but grossly
exaggerated and sometimes down.
right false. Later, 1 discovered that
fact for myself.
Wary of Chinese Reports.
Correspondents detested sending
those reports-they did not if they
could detect the falsehoods. But
they sent those that seemed to have
a semblance of the truth. After all.
the reports were Official And Wash
ington still was playing ball with
Chungking.
On one occasion I asked 4 Chi
neSe official why certain completely
erroneous report was distributed to
correspondents for dissemination
He just smiled and mumbled some
thing about it being based on field
reports. American military men and
writers always were wary of Chinese
field reports.
I replied, "Someday, when the
American people learn the truth, re-
ports such as that will backfire on
China"
He merely shrugged and walked
away.
Correspondents rarely were per-
mitted to 60 to the actual fighting
fronts On occasion, they were taken
on escorted tours Of cold" battle
fields. They would be shown stacks
OF japanese guns, helmets and other
equipment. There was q standing
joke among American correspond
ents that the equipment had been
transported from one battlefield to
another for the benefit of newsmen.
One correspondent claimed he had
scratched his initials on one helmet,
and saw it again few months later
on another cold battlefield.
Stillwel Constantly on Spot.
The Chinese in Burma fought well
principally because Gen. Stillwell
was constantly on the spot to see
that they fought we'll.
I spent five months in the
Northern Burma jungle with Uncle
Joe," walked with him approx
mately $50 miles and jeeped with
him I don't know how many more.
Only infrequently-when he had to
make an overnight flight to Chung
king, for example-did he take his
fingers from the pulse of that cam
paign.
When q battalion, or ever a COM
pany, was not carrying out orders
promptly, Gen. Stilwell would walk
or jeep to the battalion or COM
pany headquarters to see what was
wrong. He stayed until the orders
were carried out.
1t seemed significant then-and
more so now-that the offensive
usually slowed or halted when Gen.
Stilwell had to be away.
Met Many Obstacles.
However, Gen. Stilwell always
contended that, properly trained,
equipped and led. Chinese could
fight as well as any in the world,
Before starting the Northern Burma
campaign in October, 1943, Gen.
Stilwell set up a school in India,
and saw that the Chinese were
properly trained and equipped. He
SPECIAL NOTICES.
A SPECIAL MEETING of The stocfhoiderx