Yangtze Tumor

A little paragraph in U. S. newspapers last week was as significant to students of China as anything that has happened in Manchuria or Shanghai: the 30th and 31st Divisions of Marshal Chiang Kaishek's Nationalist Army were defeated by Communist troops in upper Yangtze Valley and prudently deserted to the Communist side.

What must be called Communism for want of a better word is the most serious problem in China proper today, a growing tumor that gaunt ex-President Chiang, now Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs, must solve if the Nationalist Government is to last. Three months ago the Shanghai China Forum, radical weekly, made a survey, announced that Chinese Communists controlled 177 districts in eight provinces along the upper Yangtze. They have eight major armies totalling 151,000 well-drilled men, of whom over half are equipped with rifles. Week by week the Communists creep in a constricting ring closer & closer to the former "Chicago of China," stagnating Hankow. Last week they were reported only 17 miles away.

Most observers now agree that the leaders of these forces--they would be called War Lords in the north--are real Communists who have studied in Russia, France, or the U. S. Whether or not they are connected with or receive assistance from Soviet Russia, whether their principles are understood by their followers, they have devised a system that works marvellously well in such landlord ridden provinces as Kiangsi and Hupeh. Last year it cost $45,000,000 to fight them. Most of the Nationalists were cool to the idea of battling Communism, notably Finance Minister T. V. Soong who resigned because he believed it a waste of money. His return this year was taken to indicate an easing up.

System. When Communists capture a village they first issue a call for all deeds and leases which are solemnly and publicly burned. Land is then redistributed according to the number of members of a family. Taxes are cut in half. A farmer with more than two sons must give one to the Communist Army. The son is equipped and fed, but his pay is sent to his father. Observers point this out as the basic difference between Russian and Chinese Communism. The former goes to great lengths to break down the Family, with easy divorce and state nurseries. The latter uses the Family, strongest force in Chinese life, as the base of its system. Communist spokesmen in China last week insisted that they have 50,000,000 loyal adherents in the eight affected provinces.

Foreigners in Shanghai are disposed to be calm; but a few sense danger, point out that war risk insurance has risen from last year's $4 per $1,000 per year to the present $16 to $22 per $1,000 per month.

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