Happy New Year

Under China's ancient lunar calendar, the Year of the Rooster came to a close, the Year of the Dog began. Everywhere the people celebrated their highest, gayest holiday.

The New Year was greeted according to immemorial custom. Honanese hoisted red lanterns on 50-foot poles to scare away a ten-headed bird of evil. Kweiyang folk indulged in a kind of three-day gambling festival. In Yunnan no one would think of gambling (because if you gamble on New Year's you will gamble all year long); children gathered odd-shaped stones to represent bad luck, cast them into kitchen ovens to be purged.

For Chungking and all China there was double reason to celebrate. In the cliffside capital, the nation's main political groups had successfully ended a historic conference. After nearly 20 years of civil strife, the way was open at last for peaceful cooperation within a common frame of government, for rebuilding.

"From Now On . . ." At 6:30 p.m. of Jan. 31 (by western reckoning) the all-party Political Consultation Conference met for the last time in three weeks of give-&-take negotiation. By 8 o'clock the 38 delegates unanimously approved a common program for coalition government, a democratic constitution to be submitted to a broadly based National Assembly in May.

In the coalition, the Kuomintang would still be a strong majority party, but it would no longer be solely responsible for the nation's political tutelage. On this historic point, the words of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek were deeply significant. In a congratulatory address that closed the P.C.C.'s work, China's leader proclaimed:

"From now on the leaders of the various parties of society will all participate in the government and shoulder jointly the great responsibility of shaping the future of the country. From now on the heavy task . . . rests not on the Kuomintang alone and much less on me as an individual. . . . From now on, whether in the government or out of it, I will faithfully and resolutely observe, as a citizen should, all the decisions of this conference, sincerely work for peace and solidarity, and urge the nation to take the road of unification and democracy."

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