Peripatetic Diplomatist

Year ago Nelson Trusler Johnson, energetic new U. S. Minister to China, arrived in Peiping, gave foreign correspondents the shock of their lives by delivering a long fluent speech in perfect Chinese.

"I have no intention of squatting in the legation," said he. "I intend to be a commuting minister. I'm going to study this country myself."

Following this promise, Minister Johnson has paid frequent visits to Nanking, Shanghai, Hankow. Last week came details to show U. S. citizens to what lengths Minister Johnson has carried his promise.

Minister Johnson set out from Peiping on foot, in his shirtsleeves, puffing a cheap Chinese cigaret, carrying a felt-covered canteen of chow (boiled) water at his hip. With a few strong-footed friends he tramped through the Western Hills of Chihli Province to find an ancient Trappist monastery that he had heard of 23 years before on his first visit to China. They found the monastery, were welcomed by the monks, took pictures, then decided to push even further into the interior.

Buying eggs and potatoes en route (Minister Johnson leading a sad-eyed pack pony) they went along the borders of Shansi province, whither a round-faced young engineer named Herbert Hoover took his bride while he surveyed mineral deposits in 1899.

At a place called Tu Mu (near Huai Lai-hsien) they waited five hours for a train only to find it a freight bursting with rebel soldiers retreating before the influx of troops from Manchuria. Minister Johnson climbed aboard, "rode the rods" to Kalgan, kept the soldiers in high Chinese glee by translating some of his more successful U. S. anecdotes.

From Kalgan he made his way to Tatung, visited the bat-haunted Imperial Cave Temples of the Wei Dynasty, thence to Saratsi in Suiyuan District to inspect China's greatest irrigation project, a dam being built under the supervision of O. J. Todd, U. S. engineer, to harness the mighty yellow River, "China's Sorrow," and attempt to control its perennial floods.

At Saratsi Minister Johnson visited millet fields that had been swept clear of grain by rats. The Saratsi farmers, crafty little people, did not complain. They told Mr. Johnson that they hunted out the rats' holes, stole the grain the industrious rats had harvested.

Minister Johnson's most strenuous experience was a 50-mi. ride on a shaggy Chinese pony up a dry river bed. This reduced the Johnsonian bulk five pounds.

"The affability of the Chinese was their most marked characteristic," said he, back in Peiping last week.

"We never had the least trouble. Occasionally they asked me if I was a missionary, but I always said no, just an American."

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