Chiang Triumphant

It was suddenly Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's party when 40 members of the Nationalist Central Executive Committee arrived in Nanking last week for their fourth congress. A month ago, with six revolts crackling under him, Chiang looked like a heavy loser. Picking the key revolt, he cracked down hard on the Fukien rebels headed by smart Trinidad-born Eugene Chen and General Tsai Ting-kai's famed 19th Route Army. His marines marched into Foochow, the rebel capital, almost unopposed because the veterans of the 19th Route Army who stood off Japan in the Battle of Shanghai have been largely replaced by stumbling recruits. Reeling southward last week the rebels paused briefly at a new capital, Chang-chow. From the coast and from the north, more Chiang troops came to hound General Tsai and his army into the back country.

Like jackals, Canton troops raced north to snap up abandoned towns before Nanking did. A batch of rebel politicians led by Eugene Chen moped off on a Hong-kong-bound steamer.

Some Chinese said that Generalissimo Chiang had paid the 19th Route Army 6,000,000 Mexican silver dollars to retreat. But nobody claimed that the Nationalist executive session could do much but listen to Victor Chiang's "plans for the coming year."

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