EASTERN ASIA: Soviets v. Empires

(See front cover & pictures, pp. 24 & 25) Backward, flat-faced Mongols were last week suddenly up in arms and out with up-to-date battle planes, spitting Death.

In the deep fastness of Eastern Asia, along nebulous frontiers supposed to divide Soviet power from the forces of Empire, battle was joined as a thousand Mongol rifles cracked and light Japanese tanks whirled into action. The fighting last week came as a grim climax. Preludes have been more than 100 frontier “incidents” as the Japanese Empire and its vassals steadily encroached toward the Soviet Union. Russia has been afraid to fight back, so Japan has found year after year. Finally and historically, Russia and her vassals began to fight back in earnest last week. This outburst of undeclared war was on the frontier at which a world conflict between East and West can begin any day. Therefore this week the Mongols, their Soviet patrons and their Japanese foes emerged into sudden and major importance (see pp. 24 & 25). Involved are four nations: Japan, Russia, China, Manchukuo, and a fifth—Germany. In Moscow today Soviet official wrath is directed equally at Tokyo and at Berlin. Russia fears she is going to feel German and Japanese pincers pricking the Soviet union on both flanks. That ink is newly dry on a Japanese-German secret treaty of military alliance is charged in resounding Moscow speeches by owlish Soviet Premier Molotov and that popular eagle of the Red Army, Defense Commissar “Klim” Voroshilov. Since the Soviet Secret Service is definitely keen, Dictator Joseph Stalin anticipated months ago that the Japanese, feeling Germany to be with them, would in time pass from hesitant encroachment and frontier incidents to such undeclared war as came last week. To Moscow the forehanded Dictator recently invited flat-faced, greasy Premier Gendun of Outer Mongolia and his Commissars, entertained them lavishly in the Kremlin, plied them with vodka, questioned them closely, made friends. Eyes on Map. Above what is effectively Chinese territory today (see map) lie Sinkiang, Outer Mongolia, inner Mongolia and Manchukuo. Sinkiang these days appears to be passing from Chinese into Soviet control. It may yet be the promised land of Chinese Communism. But its sparse population and extreme remoteness force it out of this week’s picture. The same is true of nearby independent Tibet. Manchukuo is that part of what was once China in which Japan in 1932 set up as her puppet the onetime Emperor of China, whose right to a Throne is entirely legitimate. This young man. famed as “Mr. Henry Pu Yi,” is the descendant of Manchu Lords who marched from Manchuria to conquer China three centuries ago. Today he is a Japanese puppet but he also rules the land of his Manchu forefathers. The population of Manchukuo. which is 95% Chinese, is being taught to venerate His Imperial Majesty Kang Te. Last week under Japanese officers the 95% Chinese troops of his Manchurian Army were the sturdy vassals of Empire who fought the Mongol vassals of the Soviets. Inner Mongolia is rapidly passing from Chinese to Japanese control and, if its people have a spokesman, he is bland, stocky Prince Te who goes often to Peiping, finding that the most comfortable place in which to haggle and compromise with the Japanese. One of the last Orientals to wear the old-fashioned cue, the Prince is of little more significance than a stuffed silk robe. Inner Mongolia is at the mercy of all its neighbors. Battle of the Temple. Outer Mongolia has been a Soviet Republic for twelve years and the only one in which Joseph Stalin has not altogether had his way. Stubborn, the Mongols have gradually talked their Russian patrons out of many Communist innovations unsuited to such nomads as themselves. Today Urga is emphatically the capital of Outer Mongolia, not a mere dependency of Moscow. Mongol Premier Gendun, while he was Dictator Stalin’s guest, drove a friendly bargain in Moscow but a bargain definitely to Outer Mongolia’s advantage. But for the Russian arms, Russian machine guns and Russian bombing planes which have been rushed to Urga and were last week spectacularly unlimbered, Japanese-Manchurian Armies would soon have tried to sweep all before them and cut across Outer Mongolia to sever the Trans-Siberian Railway at Lake Baikal. By that slashing of a vital artery, Japan could consider that she had all but assassinated Soviet Eastern Asia and that Vladivostok, cut off from Moscow, must surrender like Port Arthur. To minimize the effect of such a thrust, if it should come, Russia is now frantically rushing to completion a Second Trans-Siberian Railway north of Lake Baikal. Main fighting last week was near Lake Bor, which Japanese say is 18 miles inside the Manchu Empire and irate Mongols consider theirs. An ancient Buddhist temple with thick walls impressed commanders on both sides as worth fighting for—an ideal stronghold for the winner. As rifles crackled, the Japanese officers joyfully saw two bombing planes approaching, assumed them to be Japanese, the only kind ever seen in those parts. Instead, the thundering birds were Mongols with the Hammer & Sickle of Communism on their wings. They laid big eggs of Death among the soldiers of Empire, swooped off, wheeled again and strafed the ground forces with machine guns. Fighting continued all week, with the Buddhist temple still the main objective. Dispatches reached the outer world by two fantastically difficult routes, via Urga and Moscow and via Hsinking and Tokyo. At latest reports the Soviet-Mongol forces outnumbered the Japanese-Manchus at least two-to-one and Japanese war planes were about to rush belatedly to the rescue clear across the mountains from Tsitsihar, the war base established by Japanese after they defeated famed General Ma and set up the Manchu Emperor (TIME, Nov. 16, 1931 et seq.). Relations Ruptured— In jittery fear lest Eastern Asia be plunged into a great war by the fighting begun last week, the more prosperous subjects of His Imperial Majesty Kang Te hastily fled from Manchukuo this week to China until all transport facilities were crushingly overtaxed. In Harbin, the Russian metropolis of Manchukuo. which teems with both White Russians and Red, furious quarreling raged between Japanese-Manchu officials and Soviet Consul General Mikhail Slavutsky. He refused their demand that 108 Manchu troops who recently mutinied against Japanese officers and took refuge in Siberia across the Soviet border be disgorged by the Soviet Far East Army of Red Marshal Blucher. Finally the Russians became so incensed that on orders from Moscow all Soviet citizens in Manchukuo were urged to catch the next trains to Russia by Soviet consular officials who handed out railway tickets free to Reds who lacked money. On further orders from Moscow the Soviet Consulate General at Mukden was abolished, and the Consul General walked out, slamming the door. Since there is no Soviet Ambassador accredited to the Empire of Manchukuo, which has thus far been recognized only by Japan and El Salvador, this abrupt exit was almost equivalent to “breaking off diplomatic relations”‘—the traditional prelude to war. In the capital of Manchukuo, snow-bound Hsinking, the Japanese-directed government of Emperor Kang Te branded the fighting last week as “undeclared war” and seemed ready to fight at 30° below zero. In Tokyo, which was digging out from a record snowfall of twelve inches, the temperature was warmer last week than in Hsinking, but cooler-headed was the Japanese Government than the Government of Manchukuo. Japanese bluff & bluster has been loud during the years in which Bolsheviks have meekly put up with provoking frontier incidents, merely writing diplomatic notes which the Japanese Foreign Office sometimes answered, sometimes ignored. But with Soviet-Mongol forces actually showing fight last week Japanese War Minister Kawashima suddenly found it opportune to tell Tokyo reporters: “The Red Army of the Soviet Union is 1,300,000 strong and the Soviet Far Eastern Army amounts to 250,000— equal to the entire standing Army of Japan.” Secretary v. Emperor. A bully, if there is a chance of his being licked, can be astonishingly quick in piping down. Last week the Japanese Foreign Office, sensing that this time Joseph Stalin is really angry, suddenly flashed off to Moscow a wheedling offer. They proposed that a commission to settle frontier incidents be set up with Russia having twice as many seats as either Japan or Manchukuo. Previously the Japanese offer had always been for a commission on which each of the three countries would be “equally represented,” thus giving Japan the majority, since she bosses Manchukuo. Thus last week Boss Joseph Stalin, holder of no office in the Soviet Government, but merely the “Secretary General” of the Communist Party, had thrown something like a scare into the Japanese Cabinet of His Divine Majesty the Son of Heaven, Emperor Hirohito. By no means scared were the fanatical militarists of Japan’s Fighting Services and whether or not a secret treaty of military alliance has been signed with Germany, these swashbucklers were set to risk a great war between Japan and Russia. This week Japanese vote in a general election for a new Diet or Lower House, but Tokyo wiseacres agreed last week that no matter how the popular vote distributes itself among Japan’s civilian political parties, the Fighting Service chiefs must remain dominant for some time to come. Incredible Pittman— That, quite apart from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United States of America might well take a rougher line with Japan was the loud thesis last week of Nevada’s Senator Key Pittman, chairman of the U. S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Senator, being about to excoriate Japan, handed out advance copies of his speech in Washington. Japanese correspondents slapped this on the cables, and Japanese editors unwittingly broke the release date. Thus, before Key Pittman opened his mouth to keynote, Tokyo had read his speech. Headlined the Tokyo Asahi: “CHAIRMAN OF SENATE’S FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE OFFICIALLY ATTACKS JAPAN—Japanese Foreign Office Says ‘Let him roar.’ ” In the main Senator Pittman’s theme was that Japan is doing China wrong and that as soon as the Great Powers can spare the time from such other headaches as Ethiopia and Nazis, something should be done to help China by maintaining “the open door.” China has received the heaviest solar-plexus wallop to her economy not from Japan but from the Pittman “Silver Bloc” in Congress, whose success in jacking up President Roosevelt to jack up the price of silver forced China’s currency off the silver standard and dislocated the affairs of 400,000,000 Chinese. Last week’s keynote caused the Japanese Foreign Office’s tart spokesman Mr. Eiji Amau to snort: “Senator Pittman’s utterances indicate that he is actuated by ill will, and lacks both knowledge and judgment. Indeed, I really cannot comment until I see the official text because such a speech by a responsible statesman is incredible!” Where Was China? In all last week’s fighting and alarms where was China? What was the role of Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek, who is today Premier of the Nanking Government? For some years Generalissimo Chiang has avoided becoming involved with Japan or other foreign foes of China by remaining up-country with his large armies fighting Chinese Communists. His victories have been many. His executioners’ swords have made thousands of Red heads roll in China’s dust. Yet last week the large city of Kweiyang had only just been saved from capture by those doughty Chinese Communists, the Generals Hsiao Keh and Ho Lung. In Moscow it has not been forgotten that Communist gold, Communist military advisers and, above all, Communist propaganda in China greatly aided General Chiang to get his start; that perhaps without them he would never have conquered all China, become a Generalissimo, turned against Communism, put aside his non-Christian first wife, married a delightful Chinese graduate of Wellesley who writes stories & poems for Asia, and himself turned devout Methodist. In Leningrad last week up spoke the Generalissimo’s son by his cast-off non-Christian wife, Mr. Chiang Chin-ko, a Chinese now studying hard how to make Revolution. “Mother, I am ashamed before the Chinese people of such a father!” He declared in an open letter in Leningrad’s Pravda. “Don’t you remember. Mother, how he dragged you by the hair from the second floor? Whom did you implore on your knees not to throw you out of the house? Wasn’t it he?

“Who drove my grandmother to the grave by beatings and insults? Wasn’t it my father, who now babbles of filial affection and family morals? . . . Mother! My father is the enemy of the whole Chinese people and therefore the implacable enemy of his son. I proclaim myself a wholehearted Communist who walks ahead on the wide road of Chinese revolution!” Yen’s Plan. The threat of Communism to Chinese above the poorest class is a subject ruthlessly expunged from Chinese newsorgans by the Government censors. Last week one of the few candid expressions on this subject by a great Chinese leader came to hand from Marshal Yen Hsi-shan, the conservative “Model Governor” of Shansi Province to the south and west of Peiping. Blandly the Governor observed that he has been urging at Nanking upon the Generalissimo the advisability of a general Chinese “land reform,” the effect of which would be to divide the farm lands around each village equally among all able-bodied villagers. This is precisely the “land reform” which a Chinese Communist army introduces in each captured village, a preliminary being to decapitate the local landlords. Marshal Yen would substitute a procedure of buying out the landlords by forcing them to exchange their lands for 15-year Chinese Government bonds, which in 15 years may or may not be worth anything. Said great Marshal Yen, the antithesis of a Chinese radical, the “Model Governor” whose fingers scarcely itch: “The main purpose of my land reform is to prevent the spread of Communism into my province of Shansi. Communist troops are now massed in Shensi, on the border of my province. They promise to give the peasants the land. If we carry out the reforms I have suggested before the Communists get into Shansi, the peasants of my province will remain more contented and everyone who receives a share of land will have a personal interest in defending his village against attack.”

“If You Want to Fight.” One of the battles Japanese are fighting is also the battle against Communism which has been fought so long by Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek. As between the Soviet power and the forces of Empire, the Nanking Government and Generalissimo Chiang, see their course lying not to the Left but to the Right. And in the general direction of the Right stands for the time being Imperial Japan. On the other hand, there is a not small sector of Japanese opinion which thinks that in the last emergency Generalissimo Chiang himself might turn completely around and embrace Bolshevism if he thought he could thus get Russian armies to do China’s fighting.

Last week the Chinese Government, however, was doing nothing as regards the great struggle in Eastern Asia between Russia and Japan. The Generalissimo, having stepped into the office of Premier, had just exchanged with Tokyo new diplomatic envoys believed to be mutually satisfactory. In a moment of refined Chinese irony a delegation of Chinese students, burning to fight Japan and also aflame with Chinese radicalism, were recently received by the Generalissimo who roared at them: “If you want to fight, join the Army!”

If they joined Chiang’s army the students stood excellent chances of being led against Chinese Communists, little if any chance of being led against the Japanese Empire. Nevertheless, there is rooted in every Chinese, including the Generalissimo, unquenchable purpose to outwit Japan. Few months ago the Japanese Army’s official smart aleck in North China, famed General Doihara (who has been tagged grotesquely the “Lawrence of Manchuria”) thought he had everything fixed for immediate secession from the Nanking Government’s control of five North China provinces. The Chinese concerned had all been bribed, squared and oiled with champagne.

What with strong Japanese Army units dominating Peiping, Tientsin and a large area within the Great Wall, Nanking was powerless. Yet only two of the five provinces toed General Doihara’s line and Chinese laugh at Mr. Yin, Doihara’s pet Chinese puppet who manages south of Peiping a comic sort of “North China Free State” (TIME, Dec. 30). The big-shot Chinese puppet, supposed to jump when the “Lawrence of Manchuria” pulls the strings, is round, solid, dull General Sung who is constitutionally no nimble jumper.

Japan’s able war machine can and soon may make of North China what it has made of Manchukuo. But Manchukuo emphatically was not seduced or wooed by General Doihara in the romantic fashion of Colonel Lawrence weaving his spells upon simple Arabs of the Desert. Hard-headed Chinese, be they Capitalists or Communists, think in terms of centuries, remain confident that China must in the end outsmart or absorb Japan.