Tsinan Captured; Chang Still Coy

The see-saw fortunes of the Chinese Nationalist government, teetering dangerously for months, swung high again last week. The so-called bandit-communist armies that have menaced all government in the central provinces were comparatively quiescent. Torrential floods which have interrupted military operations against the northern leaders, subsided. Nationalist military despatches proudly announced 20 battles in one week. Best of all. Nationalist troops captured Tsinan, capital of Shantung province, in a pitched battle. Northern troops fled back toward the Yellow River leaving quantities of arms and munitions behind them. Optimistic correspondents in Shanghai announced that the capture of Tsinan and the resultant crippling of Northern forces looked like the turning point of the war, wagered that Chiang Kai-shek would control not only Shantung but also Honan province in another fortnight.

Only important Nationalist defeat of the week was the disheartening return of General Wu Ti-chen, Nationalist government representative in Mukden, Manchuria, to Nanking. Sitting firmly in Mukden is Manchuria's little warlord Chang Hsueh-liang, who rules an area larger than France and Italy together and who inherited $10,000,000 in negotiable treasure from his bomb-smitten father, the great Chang Tso-lin. Smart Son Chang is an ally whom any Chinese government would give its eye teeth to possess but to the overtures of both Nationalists and Northerners, Smart Son Chang has ever been coy as a chipmunk.

Months ago, with trunks full of silver and an iron constitution, General Wu Ti-chen went to Mukden to give a few parties for Chang, to make a final attempt to win him permanently to the Nationalist government. Smart Son Chang enjoyed the parties. At Wu's expense they ate bushels of fresh red caviar, gallons of bird's nest soup, mountains of sharks' fins, plovers' eggs, washed down by more gallons of champagne. Platoons of sing-song girls were imported. Merchants ransacked their storehouses for jewels, brocades and rare jades, with General Wu always footing the bill.

Last week General Wu returned to Nanking with his digestion ruined, his coffers empty. He had spent over one million dollars of Nanking government funds, had promised Chang both Peking and Tientsin (if and when recaptured). All he had received was a promise of friendship. Worst of all, Nanking officials learned last week that Smart Chang had actually appointed two Mukden representatives to the Peking government. Reproached for this, Chang replied that his representatives in Peking were there "for sentimental reasons only." After this announcement Chang threw a sop to the Nationalists by sending back to Nanking his official representative, General Wang Chia-cheng, whom he withdrew last year.

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