Ready for the Worst

From Peking south to Canton, belligerent Red China shouted new watchwords: "Beware of burrowing! Beware of air raids!" Burrowing meant the anti-Communist underground. Retaliatory U.N. air raids seemed a grim possibility in the Red mind; like prudent, undaunted soldiers, the aggressors in Peking were preparing for the worst.

Camouflage paint was decreed for all tall buildings in Canton. Merchants were told to ship inflammable goods inland. Industrial machinery and commodities were also being transferred. Plans for dispersal of the city's 1,000,000 population were reported. The families of Red officials were trekking to Kukong, 150 miles up the Canton-Hankow railway.

"Resist America" propaganda and mobilization mounted in clamor and fury. In Nanking a U.S. missionary teacher was publicly humiliated. In Shanghai, U.S. movies were branded as "spiritual poison." In Canton a doctors' rally pledged a boycott of U.S. medicines. Everywhere students were recruited for military service. Peking's Current Affairs Journal instructed the faithful: "Hate the U.S., for she is the deadly enemy of the Chinese people. Despise the U.S., for she is a rotten imperialist nation . . . Look with contempt on the U.S., for she is a paper tiger and can fully be defeated . . ." The Journal added that China should not fear superior U.S. resources. "This superiority," it explained ominously, "is only temporary . . . After the [Communist] liberation of [Western] Europe, the total steel production of the Soviet Union and [its allies] will reach 67 million-odd tons, which means almost a parity with the amount produced in the U.S."

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