Again Right, Again Might

To Shanghai the Dollar Liner President Taft brought last week a 45-year-old U. S. housewife who set sail for China soon after she received the following letter:

Mrs. Elizabeth Short 809 South 39 St. Tacoma, Wash.

Dear Mrs. Short:

With the greatest respect and deepest regret we beg to inform you that, when on February 23 at about 3 p. m., six piratic airplanes from the invading Japanese Navy were circling over Soochow, dropping bombs on an entirely unarmed and innocent civilian population, destroying lives and property alike in a wanton fashion unheard, of before, your heroic son Robert Short, flying a Boeing plane, engaged in a fight with the above planes, and after a 10-minute machine gun fire, he was shot and nose-dived to death.

It is true that Robert Short failed to bring down any of the invading planes, but he did kill the Japanese flyer who headed the raid, thereby preventing the Japanese attackers from carrying out their bombing raid to the extent that they originally intended.

The best words of condolence are insufficient to express to you our sorrow and sympathy in this bereavement of yours. But we can at least assure you this: No parents could have a more heroic son than Robert who gave up his own life that others might live. He dared Might and died to defend Right for humanity and civilization. To say that he was fighting for China alone would be belittling his gallant and humanitarian deed, because it is for humanity and justice that he died. The name of Robert Short will live long in the scroll of honor of great men, and his meritorious service will ever be in the memory of all Chinese.

Yours sincerely, (Signed) Chiang Kwang-nai* Ting-kai/- Tai Chi&*

Shrilling the "Star Spangled Banner," Shanghai Boy Scouts and Shanghai Girl Guides escorted Mrs. Short to the biggest funeral Shanghai has ever given a white man. His body lay embalmed in a steel coffin of immense weight. As it passed through packed Shanghai streets, the crowd panicked. Overhead zoomed Chinese planes (prudently withheld from action two months ago against the Japanese). Chinese pilots showed their skill in daring turns and sideslips. At Hungjao Airdrome, from which Robert Short went up to certain Death last February, his steel coffin was lowered into a hole in the ground. During the funeral Mrs. Short once collapsed into the arms of her other son Edmund, but smelling salts revived her and she gamely stuck out Robert's funeral to the end.

"During the darkest hour of China's desperate defense," cried Chinese Banker T. V. Soong, speaking for the Chinese Government, "Robert Short, a friend from a distant land, flew out-of the sky and gave his life. . . . To the Chinese people this act of courage and sacrifice was electrifying." Posthumously Hero Short was created a Chinese Colonel.

*Inactive, nominal Commander-in-Chief of the heroic Chinese 19th Route Army which bore the brunt of Japanese onslaughts against Shanghai. /-Active, tireless Commander of the 19th. **Chinese Shanghai Chief of Police.

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