Harry Carr Riding the Tiger: An American Newspaper Man in the Orient, Riverside Press Cambridge, Houghton Mifflin Co.: Cambridge, MA, Boston, MA, New York, New York, 1934. 262 pp. Signed by the author: "Mrs. R.P. Jennings, Sincerely, Harry Carr"; Dust Jacket.
Chapter IX His Majesty-Pu Yi
[p. 82] ". . .
[p. 84] ". . . Until the Chinese-Japanese War of 1894, the Japanese had counted for nothing in world affairs. Until 1891, on the other hand, the Manchus considered themselves . . . far above the European nations . . .
"On August 1, 1894, war was declared. The Japanese simply mopped up the Chinese army . . .
[p. 85] "Japan then had her first lesson in European diplomacy. The European Powers pushed her away from the rewards of her own victory.
" . . .
[p. 85] "Had it not been for the Spanish-American War, China would have been torn into shreds between the greedy European Powers. The military power of the United States, as shown in that mongrel war, startled Europe as much as had the Japanese. We acquired the Philippines and made it apparent that we were sitting in the game from then on. The "Open Door" policy-a notice served on Europe by John Hay-stopped the fracas. Europe accepted the doctrine. China was saved.
[p. 85] "After the World War, Japan moved in on China again with the Twenty-One Demands, but was again compelled to back off by the protests of the World Powers-principally by the United States . . .
[p. 85] "At the conclusion of the Russo-Japanese War, [Japan] had driven the Slav out of Manchuria, had taken over the South Manchurian [p. 86] Railroad, and had regained Port Arthur-and along with them many valuable properties.
[p. 86] "After the establishment of the Chinese Republic, China broke up into a series of what might be called governmental islands. Provinces ruled by war lords with armies, not paying much attention to the central government, gaily fighting civil wars among themselves, collecting taxes, and, in some instances, making their own money . . .
[p. 86] "During the years following the World War . . .
[p. 87] ". . . In September of 1931 . . . the [Japanese] grabbed the ball out of a fumble and ran with it for a touchdown . . .
[p. 88] ". . . The Japanese chased Chinese all over Manchuria. As they marched, they felt something heavy on one of their feet . . . it was Manchuria.
Chapter XII A Prelude to China [p. 111]
" . . .
[p. 116] "There are ten thousand American missionaries in China, spending $15,000,000 a year. American investment in China total [p. 117] $200,000,000 in business and about $50,000,000 in missionary enterprises.
" . . .
Chapter XIII China on the Cross
[1930s] [p. 124] " . . . The road turned across a high arches bridge . . . and flowed past an American missionary college, with impressive brick buildings behind a high wire fence, in the midst of a handsome park. The missionaries-all Americans-had been warned by the American Minister to leave, but were staying on the job . . .
" . . .
[p. 127] [Early 1930s] [In Peiping] "At the National Library . . . Dr. T.L. Yuan, the director, was superintending the packing of the treasures of the library . . . books printed with type two hundred years before Guttenberg "invented" printing . . . One treasure-one of the great literary gems of the world-he said could not be saved. This was the cyclopaedia written under the order of tthe Emperor Ch'ien Lung and finished in 1782. It was in 36,275 volumes-all written by hand in Chinese characters, each character a finished work of art. It was too big to be moved. If the Japanese seized the city, he hoped it would fall into their hands of the Japanese; otherwise it would be destroyed. Better taken by the Japanese than lost to the world. Originally there were six sets. One complete set was destroyed by order of the British Lord Elgin in 1860 . . . two were lost at Kiangsu during the Taiping Rebellion; one set at Hang Chow; one taken by the Japanese when they captured the imperial palace at Jehol" one volume was missing from this last remaining set at Peiping . . .
" . . .
Chapter XIV. Japan Throws Down the Gauntlet
[p. 130] [1930s] ". . .
[p. 138] "Dr. Hu Shih is recognized as the most brilliant intellect of China. The Chinese speak of him with deep vereration as the "Young Prophet"-the modern Confucius. He was educated at Cornell and Yale. . . I had many talks with him.The most interesting took place at the California College where I had been invited with a group of professors to meet him.
". . .
[p. 142] "In Nanking is one of the finest college for women in the world-the Ginling Girls' College. Its president is Yi-yang Wu, who, I am willing to wager, is the most beautiful doctor of philosophy in the world. She has her degree from the University of Michign and is one of the outstanding figures in the modern thought of China . . .
[p. 143] ". . .
[p. 143] "Dr. Yi-yang Wu said that China is being changed in structure and essence by two important reforms. The Chinese daughter has equal rights with the brothers, inheriting property in equal shares. It follows that the birth of a daughter is no longer a domestic tragedy. No words could ever tell of the cruelty and bitter sorrow that this effaces.
[p. 143] "Just as important an influence is co-education. The propinquities of modern education are making for love marriages. The ancient civilization of China was rooted in what amounted to treaty marriages . . . "Whatever happens politically, China must go ahead," said Dr. Yi-yang. "The door has opened; we must go through." Dr. Yi-yang is herself a living example of the change sweeping over China. As a small daugher of the aristocracy, she started toward a purdah seclusion with bound feet that would have sent her hobbling through life, a cripple, subject to the whim of whatever husband was selected for her. She has never married, although she is a woman of unusual and striking beauty. The extent to which these superior intellects willl affect and influence the future relations of China toward the world and toward life are problematic.
[p. 143] "At the present time, the Chinese of the lower strata are bitter in their hatred toward the Japanese but they also hate the Americans in at least one province . . a relic of an ancient riot . . . [p. 144] . . . The Chinese are a very strange people. The story was told to me by a diplomat of our own State Department who had been sent to China by Theodore Roosevelt to investigate the cause of this fire of hatred that blazed up against America-just as China has now blazed up against Japan.
[p. 144] "A little Chinese town near Canton. An American missionary college. A new missionary came to take charge. He had been a telegraph operator on an American railroad-accustomed to swift and decisive action and knowing very little about the Chinese. The college had a compound from which one corner was cut out by the grounds of a small Chinese temple. The new missionary was inspired to buy the temple and complete the square. Deciding to go over and negotiate personally with the priests, he found a couple of boys sitting beside a row of candles outside the temple. He told them to go into the temple and tell the priests he wanted to see them. He did not know that services were being held and that these were sacred candles which the acolytes were guarding.
[p. 144] "Chinese seldom openly refuse.The two boys sat in dumb, passive resistance, but did not move. The missionary-supposing this to be insolence-picked up the sacred candles and said he would keep them until the boys went into the temple and informed the priests that he wanted to see them. It was about equivalent to telling the janitor of a Catholic Church to walk up to the altar during the celebration of Holy Mass and tell the priest there was a man outside who wanted to talk real estate. In the hullabaloo that resulted, one of the Chinese told the crowd that the missionary doctors were killing and pickling Chinese babies. A mob broke into the laboratory of the hospital where-[p. 145] sure enough-they found an unborn fetus in a bottle. Within an hour a massacre was in progress. Nearly all the white people were killed, including the missionary's wife and daughter and eleven nurses. The missionary ran away and saved his life . . . in . . . a cave. One nurse was saved . . .
[p. 145] "This story is told-not as being characteristic of missionaries, but as illustrating the fact that in China so much depends upon fortuitous circumstances and upon the chance incident. As a whole the missionaries of China have shown heroic courage, sympathetic understanding, and tact. The Chinese themselves have told me that the chances of China to attain progress and a place in the sun are due more to the efforts of the missionary than to any other cause.
"In consideration of the case of China and Japan, one element cannot be overlooked. About eighty per cent of the Chinese Government administration is in the hands of the "Young Chinese" group, many of whom were educated in America. Others who are becoming influential in China are boys, not all educated in America, but are of the type of the "sheiks" one sees hanging around the Chinese quarters of the Pacific Coast. They have cut away from the old tradition; have not yet soaked up fully the Western philosophy-assuming that there is one. [p. 146] Both these classes have absorbed an overdose of a freshman superiority complex. They belong to a distinct type that flowers to a terrific odor in our American colleges. As nearly as I can express the idea, they want to be famous authors without writing anything. Coming at a period when great careers are no longer easy to carve out in America, they have no plain outlet for their exhibitionist yearnings. They take it out in a desire to turn out all those who have achieved success and have a new deal of the cards-not realizing that they would probably come out worse with a new start. Some of this shellac has washed off on the Chinese who have associated with our "parlor reds."
[p. 146] "I have talked to many such half-baked boys in the Chinese Government. Their attitude is thus expressed:
[p. 146] ""You Western nations have made a failure of life. What folly it would be for us to take the same fatal journey. We are not sure what the right direction may be; but obviously, it is not capitalism. Perhaps the communists are right. If we have to choose, why choose the one we know to be a failure rahter than the one that has possibilities?"
[p. 146] "If these young men ever acquire a real leader, their attitude will have an important active bearing-as it now has a passive bearing-on the future of Japan and China. Russia represents to them the principle of the new idea; Japan the sublimation of the imperialistic idea-capitalism protected by the military arm. Their opposition is less violent against the Japanese mood of swaggering militarism than against the Japan of the Mitusi Company-and kindred merchant princes. [p. 147]
XV. The Estimable Mister Wu
[p. 147] " . . .
[p. 153] "Loss of face is more serious than mere social prestige. It often affects bank credit and trade possibilites.
" . . .
[p. 159] "I had been brought up in California and looked back to a time when nearly every family had a Chinese servant. The loyalty and devotion of those old Chings and Ah Sings and Wings was a pleasant and lovely atmosphere in evey household. I remember the collapse of the first real estate boom in 1887. One California family no longer had money enough to keep a servant and the mistress went into the forbidden kitchen to break the news to old Wing. His only reply was to order her out; he permitted no one in his kitchen. She tried desperately to explain that his term of service was done. He finally took her by the shoulders and shoved her out. Until the depression ended and the family was again in funds, Wing not only worked without pay but contributed to the support of the family. In Los Angeles was a family with three beautiful daughters. On Sunday afternoon, the house was rodeo of the eligible young men of the local Four Hundred. One young Beau Brummel Ah Sing would never admit. He would open the door a crack and say: "Nobody home; go way." The [p. 160] only answer he vouchsafed to the angry protests of the belles was: "Him no good." In the end the young man proved to be worse than no good. Ah Sing knew.
[p. 160] "I knew another family in Hawaii who had a Chinese servant for fifty years . . .
[p. 160] "I knew a case in Seattle where a young Chinese boy was employed as a "nurse girl." He had charge of a baby boy . . .
XVI Chinatown Challenges An Empress
[p. 168] "In the early days of this century, I was a young reporter on a newspaper in Los Angeles. I haunted Chinatown. The little shadowy alleys called to me. Wong Sing Hay, the highbinder-who anticipated Al Capone, as a gangster by some years-was my bosom pal. Wong Duck, who kept the little restaurant in August Alley, was a brother. Old Suey Sing, with his gentle, regretful voice, let me hold his new grandchild arrayed in gold and embroidery. Charley Song's white wife, in her white silk pantaloons, admitted me to her house, an honored guest-when she was not too dopey with opium to talk. Wing Gong, in a spirit of high and hilarious adventure brought both his giggling lily-footed spouses for me to meet.
"One day I was astonished to see my friend Liu Ching had cut off the long queue braided with purple thread of which he was so inordinately proud. Stunned, I looked around. Where was Wong Sing Hay's queue-gone! I ran around to August Alley. Wong Duck nodded and said coolly; "Hello, Hallie; long time no see you." As Wong turned around, I saw that he was bearing a boyish bob.
"For explanation, Wong Duck pointed to a bulletin board flaming with inscriptions printed on scarlet paper-chicken-track writing against a sunset blaze of color. Chinatown had challenged the might and majesty of "The Old Buddha,"her slight, girlish trim figure stirring uneasily on the Dragon Throne behind the pink walls of the Forbidden City.
"Soon, in the evening shadows, Chinese boys whom I knew were drilling in spick-span uniforms behind Wui Wong's produce market. Watching them wheeling into line and breaking into [p. 169] column, in obedience to the barks of an ex-calvalry sergeant of our army, stood a little figure-a hunchback with sharp, wise eyes, his crippled figure in a black uniform, a swagger-stick tucked under his arm, seeing everything, missing nothing, the direst foe of a far-off empress in Cathay. He was Homer Lea, a mysterious eerie character who has played a greater role in the history of the world than we realized then-or anyone has realised since. He was a male Cassandra-a voice unheeded. Two thirds of the people in California-where his career started-did not hear about him at the time and the other third who heard have forgotten; but his name is known in every war office in Europe and the Orient.
"General Lea had been a playmate of mine in our school days-a withering, brilliant mind in a twisted body. He came from an old Virginia family-a family of soldiers. He drank in military tradition with his milk. When he was a baby, he was dropped by a careless nurse, his spine being hopelessly injured. For the rest of his life he wore a steel harness. I knew him first when we were both about fifteen years old. I saw him develop into one of the foremost military strategists in the world-not much known to the general public, but a voice listened to with profound respect wherever experts stick pins into war maps.
"A military career being apparently impossible, his inclination turned to the law. Graduating from the Los Angeles High School, he matriculated at Stanford University. He told me afterward that Blackstone held no thrill for him. He had determined to be a world figure; and world figures are carved out with swords. He said that he felt that some time and in some ways, his chance would come.
"While Lea was at Stanford, a movement started among the young Chinese in Dupont Street, San Francisco. I think, at the outset, it had no connection with any such idea as a republic for China. An organization was formed with a Chinese name which meant, "Movement for Restoring the Emperor to the Throne." [p. 170] The outside world was not much interested in Chinese affairs at that time. It was known, rather dimly, that the old Empress had locked up Kwang Hsu; but no one was inordinately excited about it. Homer Lea became a prominent thinking member.
"Having been drilled until they could hup-hup with proper impressiveness, the Chinese boys began slipping out of Chinatown. We heard that they were headed for China-and war. Presently Homer Lea disappeared. He returned a year or so later-with a price on his head. What he did in China is only hearsay. The accounts that he gave were touched with mysticism. To tell the truth, it was an idea too fantastic for home-consumption. That a boy who sat at the next desk in school, using the same Latin pony, should be a great Pooh-Bah in a war against a Chinese empress didn't seem to "read right." An event occurred that opened all our eyes.
"Kang Yu Wei, the Prime Minister and tutor in foreign ideas to Kwang Hsu, came to Los Angeles. He had fled from Pekin between a night and a day; had taken refuge with the British; to kill him was worth fifty thousand dollars. Arriving in Los Angeles, Kang Yu Wei reported to Homer Lea and remained under his chaperonage during his stay on the Coast. To be plain about it, Kang Yu Wei seemed to take orders from our old schoolmate as though he were a bell-hop. In his wake came an imperial prince who was also in a hurry, as a result of progressive ideas. His name was Liang Kai Chiao. He showed as much devotion and respect to Homer Lea as Kang Yu Wei. We began to see there was something in the story.
"General Lea believed that he was under the protection of a mystic destiny; that he had, in a previous incarnation, been a Chinese in high position, now returning to take up his unfinished work. The Chinese also seemed to share his faith. Homer told me that his life had been largely influenced by a recurrent dream. It first came to his sleep when he was seven years old; perhaps [p. 171] a little younger. In the dream he saw strange men and heard strange sounds and was conscious of the tumult of a battle. When he was twelve, the identical dream came again. He was, by then, old enough to recognize the strange men in his dream as Chinese soldiers. The same dream came again when he was about seventeen. This time he identified the terrifying sounds as Chinese war trumpets. He told me that he knew that his dream was the sign-post of his destiny. Some day he felt confident that he would see the identical scene of the dream; he would then know that his destiny had been fulfilled.
"During his first trip to China, he said that he had the sensation of having seen everything before. Going down little narrow streets of Chinese villages, he would know what was around the corners before he turned those corners. On one occasion, during the sporadic warfare of that revolution, he was met by a howling mob of blood-lusting Boxers. They were running to attack his party. He sent his comrades back and advanced to meet them-alone. The leader of the mob came to a stop like a horse on the edge of a cliff. The rioters behind wavered and hesitated. "His eyes can see nine feet in the ground," yelled the leader; and the mauauders turned and fled.
"Once during a thunderstorm, he took refuge in a Chinese temple. One of the priests began telling fortunes by palmistry. He took hold of Homer Lea's hand; looked up, startled, and dropped the hand, "This," he said, "is the hand of a king." Another strange omen occurred during that thunderstorm; a bird which never is seen except in the presence of royalty perched on a bush near the temple. Unfortunately I have forgotten all the bird details of the incident. At that paricular period, I am confident that this brilliant little cripple expected to win a throne. One night, in his house, he asked me to leave my newspaper job and join his staff. "How much salary?" I asked, my Scotch blood rising. "No salary," he replied. "Unfortunately," I said, "I have a family with [p. 172] healthy appetites." General Lea smiled. "Get whatever you want and send me the bills. If your wife wants a fur coat or you want a new car, get them and send me the bills. Send me all your bills, water, gas, rent-everything."
[p. 172] "And so-what?" I asked
"We are going to China," he answered. "You will see me either killed on the field of battle or become a king; it will be a good story either way."
"And now I wish I had gone.
"For two or three years Homer waited in Los Angeles. Every day he had a Navajo rug taken out to West Lake Park in Los Angeles. There he lay all day long, studying military strategy. The result was a book that swept through the military world. It was the subject for the thesis of a graduating class at Sandhurst. The German Kaiser ordered every officer in his army to read it. It was called The Valor of Ignorance. It was his warning that the United States had a war to fight with Japan; and that we were naked to our enemies.
"In that book and in other writings of that period, Homer Lea made the startling charge that the forts of the Pacific Coast were a danger rather than a defense; that San Francisco could be captured without firing a shot; that the defenses of San Pedro Harbor (now the base of the United States Navy) were ridiculous; that Los Angeles could be taken with ease and never could be recaptured. He laid the lash of savage and scornful criticism upon the officers who were then planning the defense of Western America.
"He told me then what has since become a fixed axiom in the minds of our navy; that the Japanese will give no warning of war.
"Some day," said Homer, "an operator on the cable between here and Manila will find his instrument suddenly gone dead. That will be all. It will mean that we have lost the Philippine Islands." Perhaps in jest, he added: "Some morning you will be [p. 173] starting for your office and a Japanese sentry on the sidewalk will order you back to your home. It will be just as sudden as that."
[p. 173] "Shortly after his retirement as commander-in-chief of the United States Army, Lieutenant General Adna R. Chaffee studied Homer Lea's criticisms and discussed them candidly with me. He said that he and another general of the army had sat up all one night with maps and charts going into the matter. "Carr," he said, "Lea was terribly right. I am afraid a colossal mistake has been made." I cite these details not for the purpose of scaring the Pacific Coast Rotary Clubs into taking refuge under the bed, but to give Homer Lea's background and authority. The Pacific Coast is still in a shocking condition of defenselessness; but many of the particular elements in the situation have been changed since the development of war planes.
"The force of Lea's personality was overwhelming. I remember how he used to sit in an alcove of the old Alexandria Bar in Los Angeles and hold what amounted to a royal levee. Actors, soldiers, distinguished lawyers, journalists, come to listen with respect. His manner was imperious. I happened to be sitting with him one day when an army major ventured to contradict some of his conclusions. Homer htiched around in his chair, the way cripples do, and looked him over with contempt.
"Major," he said, "I am a consulting strategist by profession. If our country goes to war-as it will-I shall be too busy to suggest a role for you to play; so I will tell you now. When war comes, I want you to drive a mule in a pack-train. Don't try to drive the lead mule because your mental capacity is not equal to the job; select a mule somewhere in the middle of the train."
"The major meekly faded away.
"I am not sure whether it was the year 1909 or 1910, but early one morning I was wakened by a telephone call: the imperious voice of Homer Lea.l [p. 174]
[p. 174] "Come down at once to have breakfast with me at the Lankershim Hotel; and hurry up."
"He told me, as we sat at the table, that he had been informed by his physicians that he had Bright's disease in an advanced stage and had not long to live. He seemed more affected by the disgust of being put on a milk-toast diet than by the fact that the Grim Reaper was beckoning. It was the first time during our long friendship that he had ever spoken about his affliction. He spoke of the terrible handicap under which he had lived; and how it had debarred him from commanding troops in the field. I told him that if he had been well and strong he would probably have spent his life as a football coach. "Yes," he said judicially, "I think that is so."
"Homer showed me a cable message from field Marshal Lord Roberts urging him to come to England-offering to send a specialist, or two specialists, to help him on the trip. By way of explanation, Homer said that his mission in England was to consult Lord Roberts and others concerning the defense of the British Empire. I state these facts as they were told to me; I have no way of verifying them.
"While we were at breakfast a spruce, financial-looking young person came in to say good-bye. "Cable me at once,"said Homer, "after you have talked to the Rothschilds." The young man bowed and retired.
"Homer said: "In a few moments we will be joined here at the table by a Chinese gentleman. You have never heard of him, but before long the whole world will be ringing with his name."
"Presently a sardonic Chinese in American clothes came in and I was introduced to Dr. Sun Yat Sen-who was to become the George Washington of China; to overthrow a monarchy that had lasted six thousand years; to become finally a god, worshipped in a temple. Dr. Sun Yat Set had little to say. Homer and I sat on one side of the table together; Dr. Sun Yat Sen sat across [p. 175] from us. Now and then, Homer would appeal to him for statistics.
"Dr. Sen," he said once, "what was the strength of the Japanese navy in the year 1896?"
"Without looking up from his plate of ham and eggs, but instantly, as though a mechanical device had been touched, Dr. Sun Yat Sen replied: "Six first-line battleships, seven cruisers, thirty torpedo boats, six ships of the train." (I am not giving the correct figures.) I remember that he had a deep, sardonic voice.
"The immediate result of Homer Lea's visit to England was that remarkable book, The Day of the Saxon, in which he foretold with sure vision many of the events that have happened since. In this book he predicted the collapse of the British Empire-and the srategic position of Russia. Briefly summarized his points were these:
"The British Empire is an artery extending to various parts of the world. The defense of this empire depends upon defending not land, but an invisible sea lane extending from London through the Mediterranean Sea; through the Suez Canal, and then branching off to Africa, to Australia, to China, to India.
"No European nation can expand in the direction of its destiny without cutting that sea lane-the empire's main artery . . . France, or Italy to the African Coast; Germany to the Persian Gulf (at that time her objective); Russia to the warm waters of the Mediterranean. Every other country had to stand still to make the British Empire safe.
"Homer Lea pointed out that Russia was like a giant glacier-slow, crushing, inevitable, ruthless, impossible to stop. Only by comparing Russia's position at a given point at different periods is it possible to realize her relentless advance. He pointed out the [p. 176] extraordinary anomaly that Russia has lost most of her wars; but after every defeat she has gained new territory-Finland, Poland, and just then, Mongolia.
"[p. 176] England's war strength-as defender of an empire-depends upon the number of troops she can land on a distant shore. In the day of the empire's youth, her ships of war sailed into seas that were ocean deserts; her cannon against native war clubs. Now-as in Leas's lifetime-her warships must sail into harbors where strong warships of the natives lie at anchor. Lea's conclusion was that England had come to the sunset of her power. He foresaw that the crack-up would begin with the opening of the Kiel Canal by the Kaiser. His point was this: British sovereignty of the seas depended upon England's ability to maintain a two-power standard: to have a navy as strong as any two other navies in the world combined. When the Germans developed naval strength in the North Sea, with the Kiel Canal and Heligoland, it became necessary to divide the British fleet; it became necessary to equal the German fleet in the North Sea, the fleets of France and Italy in the Mediterranean, and the growing strength of the Japanese in the Orient. This involved a four-power fleet-an obvious impossibility. It became necessary to protect her Mediterranean sea lane by diplomacy rather than battleships; hence the Triple Entente negotiated by Edward VII.
"Russia, Lea felt, was certain to dominate Europe-perhaps the world. This because of the following military assets: man power; unlimited food supplies; strategic position. Russia was- and is-so situated that she can at any time strike either east or west. If attacked in the Far East, Russia can strike back through the Dardanelles. In fine, Russia fights on the inside of a circle-impossible to invade. She can strike this way and that from the inside; the other powers have to run around the circle to threatened points.
"
"Russia, Lea felt, was certain to dominate Europe-perhaps the world. This because of the following military assets: man power; unlimited food supplies; strategic position. Russia was- and is-so situated that she can at any time strike either east or west. If attacked in the Far East, Russia can strike back through the Dardanelles. In fine, Russia fights on the inside of a circle-impossible to invade. She can strike this way and that from the inside; the other powers have to run around the circle to threatened points.
"To some extent in this book and to a great degree in private [p. 177] conversations, Homer Lea said that the Russians had made a mistake in antagonizing Germany. With the German troops so near her important cities, Russia's Oriental military operations were crippled. If uncertain of German intentions, Russia can never be safe in sending large forces of troops to Siberia, Manchuria, or China. In the early winter of 1933, I was in Germany again, talking again to German army officers I had known in the World War. They were bitter in their criticisms of the Kaiser for his Russian policy. They made the same point that Homer Lea had made.
[p. 177] "I may seem to have gone a long way from the Orient-the field of this book. But the weight of Homer Lea's theories are now beginning to show. Hitler has started on a long voyage. The obvious advantage he has in mind is for Germany to business-manage the vast Russian resources exactly as Japan hopes to direct the technique of China's life. That the natural thing will eventually happen seems a foregone conclusion. The machinations of politicians and the intrigues of statesmen will of necessity fail in the long run. Water will finally flow downhill.
"Germany is a force too great to remain penned up forever-picked on by the Powers. If Destiny finally brings her into combination with Russia, the Slav will go whooping back to the Orient and Japan will be eaten alive provided that Japan has not had time, meanwhile, to mobilize the vast military strength of China.
[p. 177] "It is impossible to say accurately to what extent Homer Lea influenced Sun Yat Sen and the history of China. I did not chance to meet many who had known him in China. General Maurice Cohn, who was Sun Yat Sen's bodyguard and subsequently a Chinese general, told me that-up to the end-Lea was one of the most trusted advisors of China's George Washington. The American Minister to China-Mr. Johnson-said that, during his long service in the Orient, the two most interesting characters [p. 178] he had, from first to last, met were Homer Lea and Eugene Chen-of whom more hereafter.
[p. 178] "Almost anything could be true of Sun Yat Sen. To the Western mind he was one of the most astonishing characters who ever played a big part in any nation's history. Until the era of Sun Yat Sen, China had never been a nation. It was essentially a government by families. As in the days of Abraham, the political unit was the family group. The "Old Man" was the dictator. For this reason China has always had excellent village government.
"Sun Yat Sen came back to China from America with his head full of what seemed to be a strange jumble of democratic ideals. He was born in Kwantung in 1866 and was educated for the most part in the schools of Hawaii. Sometimes he claimed to be an American. As has been said, the revolutionary movement began an an effort to throw the "Foreigners"-the Manchus- off the throne of China and return the country to the control of the native-born. Sun Yat Sen was traveling in America on a money-raising expedition when the plot was discovered. He headed at once for China. By a series of maneuvers that need not be detailed here, the plan shifted to a republican revolution and Sun Yat Sen became the first president. In his excellent book, The Tinder Box of Asia George E. Sokolsky intimates that Sun Yat Sen changed his objective from a desire to chase out the Manchus to a plan to include the mandarins by the fact that Li Hung Chang refused to meet him or to read the ten thousand character pamphlet Sun Yat Sen had written in behalf of the anti-Manchu movement.
[p. 178] "Sun Yat Sen had already made an attempt to seize the Manchu Government at Canton and had miserably failed. The first thing, he did, after proclaiming a republic and being inaugurated as the first president, was to offer his prayers-with due respect of veneration-at the tomb of the ancient Ming Emperors at Nanking. In his propaganda wanderings around the world, Sun Yat Sen-as we had seen in the Chinese quarters of California-had [p. 179] rallied the radiacal young men to his banners. The only effective military force in China after the revolution remained, however in the hands of Yuan Shih-kai, an astute, aggressive politician with a secret yearning to be Emperor of China.
[p. 179] "Disgusted by political intrigues among his followers, Sun Yat Sen resigned his office as president. Yuan Shih-kai airily rearranged the new constitution as suited his purpose; borrowed money for the new republic and spent it on his army. Sun Yat Sen accepted under Yuan Shih-kai the office of director-general of railroads. Mr. Sokolsky states that Sun Yat Sen used the money appropriated for the railroads to finance a second revolution-this time against Yuah Shih-Kai. This revolution failed, after a gread deal of bloodshed; Sun Yat Sen fled to Japan, where he was received with sympathy and friendliness.
"The World War came. Japan seized the German possession in Shantaug; the infamous Twenty-One Demands were served on China. They were at first secret. When disclosed, they met opposition from America and other Powers. Sun Yat Sen contended they represented an agreement whereby Yuan Shih-kai was to be recognized by Japan as Emperor in return for selling out China. The world-scandal over Japan's demands did not deter Yuah Shih-kai from declaring himself Emperor of China anyhow. In the opinion of many sober-minded Chinese, it would have been better for China had he been allowed to rule from the Dragon Throne. Yuan Shih-kai was a strong man and might have saved China much chaos. He had scarcely climbed into the Dragon Throne when another revolution blazed up from the South. He was defeated and died soon after.
"China then passed into the hands of a group of bandit war lords-the scholarly Wu Pei-fu, who now lives in retirement in Tientsin, a charming old gentleman very popular with foreign journalists; Feng Yu-hisiang, the Christian General; Chang Tso-lin, a Manchurian bandit who took over the control of that [p. 180] country, established a strong and efficient government, and collected about $40,000,000 yearly in taxes; and various other feudal lords. China reverted to the period of the robber barons of Europe of the Middle Ages.
[p. 180] "The seizure of Kiaochow by the Japanese from the German garrison roused Young China to fury. A boycott was raised against the Japanese. Rioting broke out. Japanese goods were burned. Chinese who dealt with Japanese merchants were cruelly and often unjustly persecuted. The most important result of this revolt was to supplant the old-time politicians at Nanking with a new group of radical young Chinese, many of whom had been educated in America and Europe. It is evident that the future of China is to be in their hands. They adopted Sun Yat Sen as their Moses. Inspired by all varieties of "new ideas," many of these students wandered on to Russia where the Soviets were remodeling the world and creating an earthly paradise. Their zeal resulted in the organization of the Communist Party of China.
"None of the astonishing mental acrobatics of Sun Yat Sen were more amazing than his dealings with the Soviets. He became closely allied with Russia and invited the Third International to assist in reorganizing the Kuomintang. Answering his invitation, Michael Borodin, a brilliant and able ambassador, came with a staff of experts to pour red into China. It is possible that Sun Yat Sen knew where and why he was driving; it is possible even that Oriental minds could follow him. This must be true inasmuch as Young China deified him after his death. His will is still read aloud each year as a religous rite; a sort of doxology. To the Occidental, Sun Yat Sen's doctrines were a mixed-up jumble of high-school economics and contradictions. He announced that he had accepted the communists, but not communism. He was the flaming cross of nationalism, but worked under the direction of the communists whose doctrine was based upon [p. 181]internationalism. Meanwhile the first congress of the Kuomintag was led by the disembodied spirit of Karl Marx.
[p. 181] "An event occurred which gave new fire to the communist idea. British policemen in Shanghai-panice-stricken-fired on a procession of strikers and students and killed many. China now flamed with an anti-British boycott. This brought about the most severe defeat ever experienced by the British Empire as a colonial power. The communists concentrated their propaganda against England as the leading capitalist nation. Facing the danger of massacre, they pulled out of their concession at Hankow, a commercial stategic post on the Yangtze. Finally, by agreement with the Chinese Government, the British flag was hauled down-one of the first instances of British surrender in history. The concession was given up. England retreated. During the boycott, British trade was slaughtered in China. The effect of this surrender on British prestige-upon the prestige of the white races in China-was severe and still continues to be so.
[p. 181] "A French journalist wrote last year: "At the height of the drama in Hankow in 1926, the British counsel by order hauled down his flag in the face of the advance of the Chinese mob, thus abandoning without a struggle the territory of the concession, and later the British Government sanctioned this abandonment, although it had plenty of naval strength on the spot. One blank cartridge would have established order and the attack on Nanking would never have occurred-that attack on the consulates with the murders of English doctors and teachers and the maltreatment of American women. Premier MacDonald said: "Negotiate. One hour of conversation with Eugene Chen will have more effect than an army corpse."" And so the author continues with a fiery attack upon the pacifist methods of Ramsay MacDonald.
"Sun Yat Sen died March 12, 1925, of cancer. He left as his monument a republic in which nobody votes. The Kuomintang which he created was-and is-explained as "tutor" to China. [p.181] It is supposed to function until 1935 when China becomes a real republic-still without votes.
[p.182] "Sun Yat Sen surrounded himself with a group of rather striking personalities. His leading disciples were Wang Ching-wei, who represented the "left" facets of the leader's mind; Hu Han Min, who stood for the leader's conservative moods and tenses; Eugene Chen, the Bitter Tongue of China. I was so fortunate as to meet all three in China. The most interesting personality among Sun Yat Sen's adherents was Chiang Kai Chek, now the military overlord of China. He had been a secretary of Sun Yat Sen. After the death of the Messiah, Chiang Kai Chek was in command of the finest military unit in the country. He turned against the Russian communists and drove them out by a ferocious campaign of violence. Borodin was forced to leave China. Ever since then Chiang Kai Chek has been fighting armies of communists in Fukien and other provinces; and the battle is still going on. He was educated in Japan and is accused by his political opponents of being pro-Japanese-even in the pay of Japan. He took no part against Japan in the battles of the Great Wall in the winter and spring of 1933; but his excuse was that he was engaged in a hot campaign against armies of communists. As will appear in a later chapter, Eugene Chen and Hu Han Min have combined against him in a life-or-death struggle for power. He is regarded by European military critics as a good but not a remarkable soldier; but he holds the trumps.
[p. 182] "Through the marriage of sisters, Chiang and Dr. Kung and Sun Yat Sen becane allies of T.V. Soong, the financial genius of China. In the early eighties, a Chinese sailor named Soong made his way to America on a freighter. He had learned how to weave hammocks on board and made his way as a hammock peddler through the Southern States. Through the interest of a good Samaritan, he was enabled to go to college and in five years came back to China with a degree from Vanderbilt University. [p. 183] He had thre daughters who were educated in the universities of the United States. They married Sun Yat Sen, Dr. Kung, on of the commercial and philanthropic figures of China, and Chiang Kai Chek. Their brother was T.V. Soong. When Chiang Kai Chek turned against Borodin, Mrs. Sun Yat Sen became alienated from the others. Mrs. Sun Yat Sen lives in Shanghai, an adored and venerated figure. Chiang Kai Chek maintains his headquarters in an out-of-the-way, inaccessible town up the river; but in Shanghai he maintains a residence surrounded by a wall like a fort; just in case . . . Anyone in a position of power in modern China is liable to need ten feet start and a clear road ahead.
[p. 183] "Since his death, Sun Yat Sen has become a god in China. One word of criticism of him brings down upon the head of the writer a storm of indignant protest from the young Chinese in America. I shudder to think what such criticisms might do in China. To American economists and to the American journalists in China he was an absurd figure. His economic theories were childish and immature. To a foreign journalist of my acquaintance in Shanghai, he once disclosed a plan for the conquest of Russia. His idea was to assemble a vast army and have it march a thousand miles a year, paying it off with a printing press carried as part of the equipment.
[p, 183] "I asked one of my Chinese friends, Bow Gung, who had been educated in the University of California, for his assessment of Sun Yat Sen, expressing my own wonderment at the veneration China holds for him, especially the young Chinese who hold American univesity degrees, and really understand economics.
[p. 183] "Americans," he said, "are a ruthless people. They spring to enthusiasm for new figures; then rend them if they fail. America has only one criterion: success. For the one who wins they have extavagant and undeserved laurels. They have no forgiveness for failure. In London there is a cenotaph always kept refreshed by beautiful flowers. They keep alive the memory of General [p. 184] Lord Kitchener, who made more mistakes than any other general in the World War. If Kitchener had been an American general, he would have been treated like a convicted felon. His bones would have been torn from the grave: his memory thrown to the wolves and the sharks.
[p.184] "In China, we are an old people. We know too much to expect much of any human being. We know the limitations of the human heart and soul. We understand and realize a great deal better than you do that Sun Yat Sen had no rating as an economist. Had he been a savant and a political philosopher, he could not have been a man of action. We revere and love the memory of Sun Yat Sen for what he tried to do and for his honesty and purity of purpose. Your criticisms make me think of the line of the Kipling poem: "It is pretty-but is it art?" After all, Sun Yat Sen was responsible for driving the Manchus from the Dragon Throne of China-and returning China to the Chinese. And all the need of praise that you have for him is to sigh and say: "Dear, dear. He did not do it with the correct technique.""
[p. 184] "Even in death Sun Yat Sen presents the same inconsistency to the Western mind. In Nanking, the Chinese have erected to his memory one of the most expensive memorials to be found east of Suez-a long flight of magnificence, marble steps leading from terrace to terrace, and crowned at the top by what appears from a distance to be a German machine-gun pillbox. It represents the adoration and reverence of the Chinese heart and soul . . . And it is just about the most God-awful example of architecture to be found in the world!"
XVII The Treaty Ports
[p. 185] ". . .
[p. 188] ". . . The Americans living in the Orient were of two types-slickers who found it convenient to be as far away from the American police as possible and the American representatives of big commercial houses. The swindlers have brought shame upon our flag: sharp-shooters traveling under faked credentials of American newspapers . . . Hollywood scum swindling Chinese by selling ovsolete studio equipment . . . an insect from Poverty Row in Hollywood trying to raise money on the brass membership card of the "Breakfast Club" by telling the pawnshop it was a Government decoration. The eager, fine young fellows sent over by the great American corporations are a credit to any country . . .
"Trade flows through Shanghai in golden rivers. Foreign nations have a stake of $4,000,000,000 in China and most of it is handled through Shanghai. Great Britain and Japan each has invested approximately $1,250,000,000; Russia, $300,000,000; the United [p. 189] States, $250,000,000. Japan has forty-three cotton mills valued at $210,000,000.
[p. 189] "American trade runs high: in an average year, 75,000,000 ounces of silver; 325,000 bales of cotton; 3,000,000 barrels of kerosene; 2,300,000 barrels of flour; $7,000,000 worth of machinery. From China we buy 10,000,000 pounds of raw silk; 123,000,000 pounds of wood oil for paint; 31,000,000 pounds of wool; 13,000,000 of egg products; 11,000,000 pounds of tin. In Shanghai American investments total $25,000,000; in Hankow, $10,000,000.
". . . Even the reigning tycoons like Chiang Kai Chek maintain houses in Shanghai . . .
[p. 189] "All inter-racial bars are down in Shanghai . . .
[p. 190] ". . .
[p. 190] "In the lower rungs of Shanghi social life . . . Underneath the cover Shanghai is a vile city . . .
[p. 191] ". . .
[p. 191] "American jazz, dancing, and co-eduction are changing the social structures of China: changing China in every way-especially dancing. The idea was introduced into China by the young college [p. 192] boys who came back from America. It has swept through all the treaty ports . . . "[p.193] The great majority of the graduates of American universities are Christian-usually from Christian families before going to America . . .
[p. 193] Hongkong is British
[p.196] Portugal's Gambling-Hell
[p. 201] Macao hosts pirates
[p. 201 "It seems that in the time of Sun Yat Sen, the whole pirate colony became fired with patriotic zeal. They wanted to quit buccaneering, take up arms for China, and fight in the battles of the Republic against the Manchu monarchy. Their overtures were accepted. About three thousand wre taken into the army and fought well and valiently. About four years ago, another band of five hundred pirates wanted to do the same thing: quit the life of crime and enter the Chinese army in a body. The emissaries of the Govrnment met the chiefs at a big pow-wow. A huge feast was given in honor of the event. While the chiefs feasted, the rank and file of the pirates were taken on board the Government junks in parties of four or five-a sampan load at a time. As fast as they got on board, they were seized and ironed. The chiefs finally got wind of what was gtoing on and tried to fight their way to freedom. They were overpowered and were all executed sitting on the edge of a giant grave near the scene of the feast. Ever since then the pirates have been shy of penitence and reform.
XVIII The Valley of Promise and Despair
[p. 203] ". . .
[p. 205] "The Chinese, against whom a venomous fate has vented its spite, are not a low-type people. On the contrary, it is doubtful if any other race or any other nation will assay as much pay dirt. In the universities of the United States I know several young doctors of philosophy who have risen from this mire. All my life I have been intimately associated with the Chinese. I can say, in all sincerity, I have nerver met a stupid one. Against conditions of prejudice and oppression in our own cities, they have almost invariably risen to commercial success. They are industrious, smart, shrewd, and logical. I knew one old Chinese who was working farm groups in California fifty years before the Brain Trusters arrived. Crop rotation was commonplace in China ages before scientific agriculture was dreamed of in the Occident.
[p. 205] "In Mexico, the Chinese had absorbed the whole commercial life of the State of Sonora before they were driven out by the mobs . . . I have observed the Chinese farmers on the rich delta lands of Lower California. Coming from farms the size of a city back yard, they seem to know by instinct how to handle large tracts. On the great million-acre C and M Ranch below Mexicali in Baja California, the Chinese refuse to consider a lease for less than one thousand acres. They "think big."
"The amazing thing is their understanding of finance. Raised for countless generations on snatching coppers and dealing with "cash" which usually run about twenty-five hundred to an American dollar, they turn to large financial operations as though they [p. 206] they had never heard of any sum smaller than a thousand dollars. They take to American banking methods, the credit system, large labor operations, by some mysterious subconscious process . . .
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