Coast Drive for Peace Drive

In the cities of Free China last week could be seen a time-honored sight: groups of poor young men being marched through the streets, each tied to the one in front of him by ropes around the neck. These were not criminals. They were simply draftees, being subjected to the traditional insurance against their never reaching camp.

There was good reason why the crop of conscripts was being reaped. The Japanese neighbor, waving a sword in one hand and a pact with Russia in the other, was bearing down.

According to Chinese estimates, about four divisions of Japanese regulars landed at various points along the coast of Chekiang and Fukien Provinces south of Shanghai, and were driving inland, practically unresisted. They would probably not drive far, for the landings had three restricted purposes--all of which might have some bearing on other theaters of the World War:

1) They were designed to intensify the blockade of Free China. Many goods of war and peace had found their way into Free China by way of this unoccupied strip of coast. Domei, the uppity Japanese news agency, said quite frankly that the move was intended to cut off U.S. aid to China. Simultaneously the Japanese resumed bombings of the Burma Road.

2) By moving the blockade ashore, it released naval vessels for operations elsewhere--operations for which the Russo-Japanese Pact was presumably a paver.

Citizens of the Philippines had a scare when they heard that Japanese merchants of Southern Luzon had had orders to close out their businesses by April 30, and to this end had discounted prices on their goods as much as 50%.

3) Most important of all, the coast drive was intended to shake Chungking into a receptive mood for a peace drive. Chungking morale was already badly shaken by the Pact (TIME, April 28). One of its first visible effects in Chungking had been the withdrawal of 26 out of 37 Russian military advisers--showing the worth of Moscow's protestations that the Pact would not affect Soviet aid to China.

A subtle twist in this morale offensive, which was aimed at Chungking in general and at Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in particular, was that one of the towns the Japanese advance rolled past was Fenghua, the "Gissimo's" birthplace. The Gissimo is sentimentally attached to Fenghua's bamboo-shaded hills, where he rested his injured back after he was kidnapped by the Communists and "Young Marshal" Chang Hsueh-liang in 1936, to its streets, which he widened out of his own pocket, to its school, which he built, to its graveyard, which he regards with proper filial devotion, since his mother is buried there.

The outcome of the Japanese peace drive which was expected to follow the coastal investment would have direct bearing on the entire balance of the south Pacific. If China could hold out, Japan would be reluctant to move elsewhere. If not, the scramble would be on as soon as the Germans got the incontestable upper hand in the West. China's resistance now depended almost exclusively on U.S. aid and on a quality which no one used to think the Chinese had until they flaunted it for four years--guts.

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