Bumps & Blood

The Master of Jehol, whose warm opium-growing oases, have made him vastly rich, is sturdy, walrus-mustached War Lord Tang Yulin. Last week he braved a Japanese offensive, buried a wife and entertained with bland, lavish hospitality two highly exalted Chinese.

The wife, in her way, was important. When the Japanese first set up the puppet State of Manchukuo they thought they had bribed War Lord Tang to come in with his Jehol and accept office as Vice Chairman of the Privy Council of Manchukuo. Later, when Tang seemed to cleave to China (TIME, Jan. 23), Japanese were mystified by his refusal of their bigger & better bribes. Why on earth should not Tang sell out? There must be some personal reason, the Japanese decided.

Last week Japanese newshawks in China triumphantly announced that they had found the reason. Tang's favorite wife, they alleged, had been kidnapped from Jehol and was being held in Peiping, a hostage of his loyalty, by China's "Young Marshal" Chang Hsuehliang. Setting out from Peiping, U. S. newshawks bumped 100 mi. over awful roads from Peiping to Tang's Capital, Chengteh.

"Eight hours before you arrived," said War Lord Tang, impassively, "my wife died. . . . Jehol can be defended and must and will be defended. . . . Japan and Manchukuo cannot control Jehol without taking my Capital and we are certain we can hold out here for at least six months. . . . Airplanes never capture any objective and we shall be able to hurl back the Japanese infantry. Tanks, armored cars and all such things will be useless in Jehol which is mostly without highways and mountainous."

To hearten War Lord Tang last week, young Marshal Chang and famed Chinese Finance Minister T. V. Soong who is now "Acting Premier" made the unprecedented move (for Chinese statesmen) of venturing into the threatened province, Jehol. Bumping out from Peiping, risking a Japanese bombing raid on their way, they entered Chengteh through a triumphal arch provided by War Lord Tang.

"Dear me," commented Chengteh's Belgian Catholic Missionary, Father Oscar Conrad, "I don't suppose this place has been so excited since the Empress Dowager was here 72 years ago."

Dr. Soong, who knows the value of excitement, harangued a Jehol mass meeting of soldiers & civilians thus: "Because a map has been published at Tokyo showing the so-called Manchukuo with Jehol included, Japan claims title to this province. You must now color this map with your heart's blood to show the world that Jehol is Chinese territory!

"On behalf of the Central Government, I pledge you that we will never give up the northeast, we will never give up Jehol. The enemy may blockade our ports, they may even capture Nanking, but there will be no one to sign terms of surrender."

Even as Dr. Soong spoke "the enemy" were pouring some 50,000 mixed Japanese and Manchukuoan troops across the frontier of Jehol. The Chinese claimed to have taken Chinchow, Japanese concentration point between Shanhaikwan and Mukden. Heavy Japanese fire began at Chaoyang near the border. But it will be many weeks before they can scale the mountain passes (defended by 150,000 Chinese) leading to Chengteh.

Up to the very last, the Japanese hoped they could buy Jehol's Tang. Finally Japan's puppet Regent of Manchukuo, hollow-eyed Henry Pu Yi, denounced Tang as a "renegade," took away his empty title "Vice Chairman of the Privy Council of Manchukuo" and bestowed on the Japanese-Manchukuo forces advancing upon Jehol a splendidly euphemistic name: The Jehol Pacification Expeditionary Forces.

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