CHINA: Behind the Bamboo Curtain

When it became apparent that the Communists would overrun China, many a U.S. diplomat welcomed a chance to stay at his post and see how Asia’s new imperialists would operate. Last week, the U.S. had news of three who did.

In Mukden, after studiously ignoring him for about four months, Communist officials finally paid some attention to white-goateed Consul General Angus I. Ward, 56. The Reds arrested him and four members of his staff. The charge: beating up a discharged Chinese employee, one Chi Yu-heng, after he had demanded severance pay. The entire population of Mukden, the Communist radio reported, was demanding punishment for “this savage and brutal act perpetrated by American imperialists.” Ward has not been allowed to communicate with Washington since his arrest.

Earlier in the week, two other U.S. consular officials arrived in Tokyo after 14 months in the nominally Chinese Manchurian port of Dairen.

Push-Ups for Warmth. Consul Paul Paddock and Vice Consul Culver Gleysteen arrived in Dairen in June 1948. From that time on, they were sealed off from all except occasional radio contact with the outside world. In 14 months, they received mail twice. During the last four months of their stay, the Russians made daily attempts to jam their radio contacts with the U.S. State Department.

On one occasion, Gleysteen was arrested and charged with “signaling out to sea with the lights of his jeep.” He was held for two hours in an ice-cold waiting room where he did push-ups to keep warm while Paddock argued for his release. Said Paddock: “The fact that it was not quite dark and that the jeep was pointed inland would seem sufficient to disprove the charge.”

Other highlights of the Paddock-Gleysteen report on Dairen:

The streets teem with Russian soldiers. Dairen Chinese are now forbidden to use the old Chinese term mao-tse (literally: hairy one) when referring to Russians; Russians must be called lao-ta (literally: elder brother).

Economically, Dairen is almost completely prostrate. The port itself, once capable of berthing 50 to 60 ships, now handles about one foreign freighter and two Russian ships weekly.

Factories for Russia. Industrial production targets in a “two-year plan” for Dairen published last January ranged from 5 to 30% of Dairen’s prewar output. All of the city’s major factories have been either taken over outright by the Soviets or organized into a system of “Sino-Soviet Trusts.”

The Paddock and Gleysteen report corroborated others received last month in Tokyo from a group of repatriated Japanese refugees. Some of the refugees were produced before a Communist rally in Tokyo, where each was paraded up on a rostrum to make a little speech. One youth tried hard to be convincing. Said he: “Living in Dairen wasn’t so bad. In fact, I think things really must have been a lot better than they seemed.”