Evening star., 1954-10-29
From Inside Chino
Newsmon Witnesses Might
Of Communists on March

on MQfCh
make some dents in Russian
style communism.
No Choice About Going.
The Soviet Union found 1t
necessary to remind Peiping's
citizens of their ties with Mos
cow by opening the next day
an enormous, wedding cake
structure which contained ex-
hibits of Russian art and indus
try. But the droves of Chinese
who went there were members
of schools and trade unions. and
had little choice. My ifnpres-
sion of the. anniversary celebra-
tior1s was that. in fact, the
people really were in festive
mood and Impressed to see Mao
Tse-tung waving to them from
the gates of the Forbidder, City
HIS sunatanXed chubby face
above the Gate OF
Heavenly Peace early that morn
ing as thousands of school chill
dren massed in the enormous.
below. I had a quick
breakfast Of soya bean milk and
pancakes in a corner restaurant,
then steod on one Of the review
stands. On one side was a IT,
betan lama, who stuck out his
tongue at me In traditional
greeting.
Just when interest tagged and
the eye tired of watching taste
less cardboard cutouts of fac
tories, wobbling portraits and
huge plaster busts carried along
in the stream. along would come
pretty young silk dancers weav-
ing 15-foot-long colored scarves
into intricate patterns, or sinuous
girls in bright silk costumes
bending and whirling in graceful
unison as they danced down the
square with great ivory fans out
stretched like outsize butterflies.
Once the ominous. clash Of
drums and cymbals, was broken
by ranks Of Chinese waist drum
mers marching sideways, in per-
feet step and beating a tattoo on
drums balanced on their hips
just as they had whenever an
emperor entered the towering
palace gates.
Precision Is Impressive.
What impressed neutral OBJ
servers was the precision. The
review ended exactly on time by
mid-afternoon and crowds surg
ed forward to the Gate OF
Heavenly Peace.
BY evening mile long stretch
of the avenue on either side of
the square, named "the Street of
Lasting Peace" by some long
dead mandarin, was again
packed with humanity. Few OF
China's workers get any holi-
days apart from festive occasions
like this and the whole Of Peking
seemed cranmed into the food
lit square where bands played a
military sort Of dance music
Most of it counded Slavonic in
origin, and most Of the dancing
was Russian.
Searchlights picked out the
glazed-tile roofs of pagodas and
temples and hundreds Of small
groups formed dancing circles
Many girls wore dresses. skirts
and blouses, q relief from their
monotonous day clothes OF tunics
and trousers.
stood with foreign diplomat!
on the reviewing stands keeping
out the cold with o fierce Chimes
drink distilled from sorguln ar1t
known as Mao Tai. Suddenly thu
sky was filled with explosions
and out of 1t rained b-illian'
necklaces Of sparkling light, Jus
as they always had. the Chimes
were winding up with fireworks
All around US the odd bottle o
Mao Tai was coming out,
Kids chased falling flares Q,
lit humble crackers while tn,
night was filled with the tw'
things the Chinese seem to low
most, q crashing din Of bang
and shouts, and soaring IRE
works launched once again witt
| a superb sense Of timing from
half . dozen points around tn
city.
Troops March Faultlessiy.
Several hundred Chinese vet
Grams Of the Korean war crowde,
my other side. Thousands o
people packed all sides Of tn
square when guns doomed