Chang after Chang

A capable young Chinaman called by fawning flatterers "The Perfect Soldier" admitted last week, after 17 days of prudent concealment, the death of his father, Chang Tso-lin, the great War Lord of Manchuria, who was bombed after evacuating Peking (TIME, June n).

The seventeen days served to enable Son & Heir Chang Hsueh-liang to consolidate his position with apparent success, so that last week he proclaimed himself War Lord at Mukden, Manchuria, and admitted that he had inherited $10,000,000 in negotiable treasure.

Soon the new Ruler of an area larger than France and Italy together and lying just north of China proper, voiced a program for the future with virile firmness: "I want our people to concentrate on the development of Manchuria and look to ourselves, not outward, for development. There is no need of our seeking to expand now or encroach on other parts of China.

"I have been ten years in war and know its horrors. I want to lift this scourge from our people.

"Regarding the Nationalists [see Strongest Man], we are ready to treat with them on a basis of equality. In fact, we are already conducting negotiations, but they are at a standstill for the present, due to the lack of unity within the national Government. If they seek to exclude us and make peace on their own terms naturally we will not have anything to do with them."