CHINA: Cruel Generosity

Along a battered railway in North Shansi, where the year’s last tasseled kaoliang still stands unreaped, the biggest, bloodiest battle in a year of China’s civil war has just ended. A Government army, rolling to the relief of Tatung, effected a junction with a column from the long-besieged city.

The battle had begun in early August, when the kaoliang was still green and Communists encircled the strategic coal and railroad center. For 45 days Tatung held out against assault, until the column from Suiyuan broke the siege ring. Some 50,000 fighting men died or suffered wounds.

The victor of Tatung was General Fu Tso-yi, 51, governor of Suiyuan since 1931, Confucian protege of old Shansi “Model Governor” Yen Hsi-shan, and known in Kuomintang China as an able, honest, austere soldier. In the hour of victory General Fu took up his brush and addressed a plea to Communist Party chairman Mao Tse-tung: “The battle has taken the lives of at least 20,000 of your troops. We have buried them and wept over them. How sorrowful was the picture as they fled in fright, bleeding and falling by the roadside. I could not but press my heart and ask: who has killed these men?”

“Reconsider Your Policy.” “Had I fought them with personal lust or for the gain of a few men, it would be I—a monstrous criminal whom heaven should punish. But if they were rebels misguided by you, then you are the murderer. In the silence of the night, think upon it . . . reconsider your policy. . . . What people hate most is war. What they need most is peace . . . you say you will struggle on for ten years more of fighting and disturbance. What would then be left for people?

“I have never regarded myself as an enemy of Communists. Rather, I have sympathy and profound admiration for your spirit against the Japanese. I beg you to give up your belief in force, change your policy, partake in the government. . .help nationalize our armies and realize constitutional China . . . put an end to chaos. Once you join the government, if you wish General Ho Lung [veteran Communist commander] or anyone else to assume my command, I would welcome and assist him. With your assent I myself would serve under him obediently and loyally. A peaceful, united and democratic China is not only the need of our people but the hope of America and Russia. It would win the sympathy of all the world. You have to choose.”

Last week, in the silence of the night, Mao Tse-tung, who had long ago made his choice for dictatorship and against democracy, was still pondering upon General Fu’s stern indictment and cruelly embarrassing generosity.