New ''Chief Executive"

Despatches from Peking were so meagre last week as to suggest that the armed forces now occupying that city (TIME, May 3) were exercising a ruthless censorship. The consensus of reports was that Dr. W. W. Yen had been set up at Peking as "Chief Executive"* of China," with Dr. Wellington Koo as his Premier and Foreign Minister. He was allegedly supported by the victorious armies of General Chang Hsueh-liang, field commander for his father, the great Super-Tuchun of Manchuria, Chang Tso-lin.

Yen. Dr. Yen is remembered as "the first Christian Premier of China" (1922). At the outbreak of the War he was Chinese Minister to both Germany and Denmark, withdrawing definitely to Copenhagen when China entered the War (1917).

He possesses a Phi Beta Kappa key and a diploma won at the University of Virginia. Well-posted citizens of every nation know him as an outstanding champion of peace in China. Recently he said: "The Chinaman's first problem is to live. Fundamentally our people are simple souls. They want to be clean and prosperous."

Koo. Dr. Koo is even better known to the Occident. He took his Ph.D. at Columbia, delights in tennis and trout fishing, served until recently as Chinese Minister to Great Britain.

*This somewhat nebulous office was held by Tuan Chi-jui from November, 1924, until his flight from Peking a fortnight ago.