Gathering Host

Three U. S. Senators. The unfolding progress of the Chinese Nationalist advance upon Peking (TIME, March 28 et seq.) loomed with such vital portent last week that three U. S. Senators were busy in China, making personal investigations on the spot. Senator Hiram Bingham, Connecticut Republican, pushed his tour of China (TIME, May 9) to the extreme of venturing 400 miles up the great river Yangtze, last week into the very heart of "Chinese Communist" territory. Since he traveled on a U. S. warboat, the Senator was effusively greeted at Hankow by the "Communist" Foreign Minister Eugene Chen (TIME, Jan. 24). Later Mr. Bingham pushed on to Ichang, in the extreme upper reaches of the Yangtze.

The two other Senators, less daring, merely stopped off at Shanghai. They were Senator Burton Kendall Wheeler, Montana Democrat, en route to the U. S. from the Philippines, and Senator Guy Despard Goff, West Virginia Republican, en route to the Philippines from the U. S.

Modest Emperor. The deposed heir to the vanished Manchu Empire of China, a modest youth, Henry P'u-Yi (TIME, March 16, 1925) was interviewed last week for the first time in many months, at his refuge-residence in the Japanese quarter of Tientsin. Said he:

"What do we see in China today? Nothing but maladministration, treachery, bribery, and wars. China is suffering more than anything else from too many rotten generals. They are everywhere, fighting and marching, backward and forward--not for China, but for their own personal gain.

"It is no sinecure to be emperor today. A good emperor must be a representative of and father of his people, and I am not good enough morally or mentally to be father to the people of China. I am sure the time will come when there will again be an emperor in united China, but it must be somebody greater than I."

Scowling Marshal. Not without boldness did Henry P'u-Yi speak of China's "rotten generals," at Tientsin last week for even as he spoke two of these generals were entering into an alliance, preparing to march upon Tientsin and Peking with 200,000 men.

Suchowfu, 400 miles from Peking, was the auspicious scene upon which this alliance was struck up. Came the Nationalist Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek (TIME, Oct. 4) whose armies, originally one with the Hankow "Communist" forces, have now conquered the Southern half of China. Then, amid cheers and bugle blasts, came the great Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang--an abundant fellow, massive, barrel-sized, jowled like a tiger, and last week unshaven, scowling, imperious in the pride of his new power.

Just 14 months ago (TIME, April 12, 1926), Feng Yu-hsiang was driven from Peking by the great Manchurian War Lord Chang Tso-lin, who is still supreme there. Marshal Feng retreated into Mongolia, consolidated his forces there, then hurried to Moscow where he allegedly obtained enormous grants of gold, supplies, arms, ammunition. Therefore it was pretty to see last week, how Marshal Feng managed to convey the impression that he is not a Communist, yet carefully did not disavow or antagonize the Soviet Government.

Ultimatum. Feng Yu-hsiang made known his stand to Chiang Kai-shek by announcing that he had sent an "ultimatum" to the Chinese "Communists" at Hankow, thus:

"In the territories under Hankow's control, merchants, factory owners and land owners are being oppressed by the laborers and farmers. The Chinese people do not want such despotic practices. Owing to the spread of communistic doctrines in Honan province, even the families of soldiers at the front are being oppressed and their properties are being confiscated. Other crimes are being perpetrated in the name of nationalism.

"Apparently an effort is being made to throw the entire nation into confusion in order to serve the purpose of a small group of radicals. . . .

"Now I have decided that the following remedies must be applied:

"First, M. Borodin, who already has resigned, should return to his own country, Russia, immediately. Second, the Chinese members of the executive committee of the Hankow government who wish to go abroad for a rest should be allowed to do so. Other members of the Hankow government who are sincere believers in Kuomintang principles should join the Nanking government at once.

"Individual conflicts can easily be overcome in order for the revolution to succeed in the shortest time and make effective the principles of Dr. Sun Yatsen.

"We must have reverence for the memory of Dr. Sun."

Sainted Name. Thus Marshal Feng, a stark realist, chose to invoke the sainted name of the late Dr. Sun, "Father of the Chinese Republic."

This was significant. It meant that although Marshal Feng has taken the pay of Moscow he dared not appeal to his countrymen in any other guise than as the champion of "China for the Chinese," the ideal of Dr. Sun. In Sun's name, not in the name of Marx or Lenin, the drive to conquer Peking and North China was fully under way last week by the united armies of Marshals Feng and Chiang.

Butler Barks. Were U. S. citizens at Peking endangered last week by the prospect of its being conquered? Some thought that they were, and work was started to strengthen and raise the barricades around the Legation quarter. Meanwhile Brigadier General Smedley Darlington Butler, commanding all U. S. marines in China (TIME, June 20), hurried from Tientsin to Shanghai to hasten the shipping of more troops north. Correspondents found him barking hasty orders. Said he: "I find the transport Henderson just in from Manila loaded to the gunwales with supplies and 1,150 marines. Fine! Fine! We are moving fast, for the Nationalists are sweeping north. Their agents are 'boring from within' among the people. . . . The humblest farmers are fully informed of the Nationalist program.... I visited swamplands, near Tientsin, where the more ignorant peasants think the invasion of the Nationalists will end all their troubles--make it rain, and bring similar marvels."