Evening star., 1954-10-29
salute and heavy silence fell on


the city.
/ always thought nothing COM
pared with Britain's coronation
for packing an emotional wallop.
The next hours changed my
mind. They began frighteningly
with columns Of troops. tanks
and guns. Their marching was
faultless, every soldier looked
exactly alike in size and features,
their arms swung back and forth
across their chest with terrifying
rhythm. They might have been
pouring straight off the produc-
ton line of some human factory.
Some were paratroopers squat
ting rigidly in trucks, heads hid
den inside fat. quilted helmets.
strange corrugated tubes winding
over their shoulders into clumsy,
great back packs. Any Canadian
child would have recognized
them AZ cnce as spacemen. Over
head potired jets and bombers.
Then the crowd stirred and
the Korean veterans next to me
nudged each other as rank upon
rank Of shaggy Monaghan ponies
trotted past bearing bulky Chi
flese cavairymen looking excess
lively big for their mounts. Their
appearance reduced tension.
Acataract Of small girls poured
forth, each dressed in blue and
red skirts and blouses and waving
branches of paper cherry bios
som. They we're led by the Chi
nese version of majorette who
sounded the only sour note by
shouting at intervals "Liberate
Formosa", a cry obediently taken
up by these little girls with their
lustrous black hair in bouncing
braids and with their faces in
nocent of the knowledge Of what
that liberation could mean.
Organized Smoothly.
Or course, the masses that now
marched past had been organized
and Of course they were given
slogans to yell and banners to
carry.
European Communists on the
march always filled me with
horror. They had so clearly
abandoned their minds and
bodies to the dictators. These
people were different. A few
years. ago they had nothing.
Today they wore dungarees and
uniforms and now they came
past in a stream Of humanity
which believe has never been
equalled elsewhere. They moved
in groups. A thousand railroad
men here, 5000 miners there. and
each bore huge models of new
industrial projects which bobbed
along above their heads.
Along the edges of this stream
stumbled the cheerleaders. some
OF them consulting little strips
of paper in their hands before
starting up a cry of Long Live
Chairman Mao" or I'VE Demand
the Liberation of Formosa."
It would have been unsavory
to watch if this sea of faces were
not alive with laughter. The
Korean veterans next to me
would jump in the air from time
to time and wave and yell at
some one in the stream. The
Tibetans had sagged to the
ground and were munching
apples. I focused binoculars on
Mao Tse-tung. He stood beneath
10 enormous, red Chinese Ian
terms, nodding and laughing and
waving.
Mao Wears Gold Hat.
He wore a gold -colored helmet
which had tipped on the side Of
/ his head and his hands were
tucked inside the thick folds OF
a cloak. With him were several
Tibetan girls and a bunch OF
shaven-headed Buddhist monks
in yellow robes. Another Tibetan
wore a d-brimmed hat and
when the sun got hot, took II
of. Inside the crown ! read the
name Of famous London hat
maker.
This parading mass Of human
/ ity was now nearly 100 yards
broad and packed solidly. AL
the time q vast and stationary
4 army Of military bandsner
thumped drums with a slow, in.
sistent rhythm which rolled
through the square and echoed
among the courtyards of the
/ Forbidden City. Clouds Of huge
balloons were released from time
Ito time and some anfurled lont
\ IChinese banners as they filled
lSlle sky with color. Great, gas
Ifilled Chinese lanterns went bob.
bing upwards among the hun.
dreds or white doves dutteriqf