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Despite eight years of Red rule, there remain millions of Chinese, including the uncounted inside China itself, who maintain a stubborn faith that China will again be free. Each year on "Double Tenth" (the tenth day of the tenth month) they renew that faith in celebrating the anniversary of the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty and the founding of the Chinese Republic by Dr. Sun Yatsen. Last week, on a bright, breezy day, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek watched his U.S.-equipped Nationalist army roll by in an impressive display of motorized armor. Overhead Chinese and U.S. jets left vapor trails above the fleecy clouds.

This year stubborn, aging (69) Chiang Kai-shek could point to rumblings of revolt inside Red China, noted with grim defiance: "The question of material requirements, including manpower and other considerations, is not a major deterrent. What is more serious is that there seems to be a lack of self-confidence among some of us. There is a tendency to magnify the difficulty of achieving a final victory."

Across Southeast Asia, thousands of overseas Chinese displayed new loyalty to the red, white and blue banner of the republic. In refugee-swamped Macao, they staged the biggest demonstration since the Reds seized China. In sensitive Hong Kong, far more Chinese showed Nationalist colors on Double Tenth than had displayed the Red flag on the Oct. 1 anniversary of the Communist victory. In neutralist Cambodia, more Chinese shut their shops on the Nationalists' holiday than on the Communists'. Editorialized the New York Times hopefully: "The concept of freedom cannot be killed by Communist maneuver. The new and great days of a truly free China are still to come."

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