1938: China

Situation at Year's Opening.

By the beginning of the year 1938, after six months of undeclared war, China had lost vast stretches of her territory in the northern and central parts of the country, had seen most of her key cities, including Nanking, the capital, fall into the hands of the Japanese, had suffered incalculable losses in lives and property, and had been compelled to move her capital to Hankow.

Nevertheless, as the New Year dawned. China faced the invaders with a national solidarity unique in her history, and with a grim determination to fight the attempted conquest of the country to the bitter end. She was training a million new recruits, had moved her universities and her famed art treasures far inland, had adopted the 'scorched earth' policy, by which cities and towns about to be captured were put to the torch, and had contemptuously rejected humiliating peace terms.

SURVEY OF 1938

New Government Setup.

Early in the year. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek resigned as head of the Central Government in order to give all his time to military affairs. He reorganized the Government and set up six new Boards which were to devote all of their time to matters of (1) military operations: (2) military training; (3) military administration; (4) political training; (5) military justice; (6) transportation and publicity. Economic matters and control of heavy industry were transferred to the Executive Yuan. Mr. H. H. Kung, the former Finance Minister, became Premier.

New Highways, Railways, Airways.

Because practically every port of China had been blockaded by Japanese ships, a vast new system of land communications also was under way at the beginning of the year; new highways, railways, and airways were being feverishly pushed to conclusion, to link China with territory to the west and south, thus insuring the flow of munitions for her fighting forces. Among the most important of the new highways is a road connecting China with Russia across the far west province of Sinkiang. The Chinghai and Sinkiang portions of this trans-Asiatic road follow the ancient camel caravan routes used in trade between China and the West thousands of years ago. Another important highway is that from Yunnan in the southwestern part of China across the mountains into North Burma and connecting with the Burma Railways. Both the Russia and Burma roads, urgently needed for the transportation of war supplies, have since proved of inestimable value to the Chinese.

The Chungking-Kweichow Highway through Yunnan into Indo-China was opened on Jan. 10, 1938, thus facilitating the passage of arms and munitions through that country. Ever since the opening of this highway, war supplies have poured in a steady stream over the Indo-China Railway to the Chinese border, where thousands of coolies take charge of sending them on to their destination. Innumerable Chinese junks move along the nation's vast system of waterways, bearing these desperately needed supplies to the Yangtze Valley.

Work was also completed early in the year on a railway from Hengyang on the Hankow-Canton Railway through Kweilin to Lungcho on the Indo-China border.

The most vital port of entry for munitions since the beginning of the war has been the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong; but, because the railway from there to Canton (the Canton-Kowloon Railway) has, since the outset, been constantly bombed by Japanese planes, precautions had to be taken against the day when that old and strategic city of South China might fall into Japanese hands. At the beginning of February, 1938, enough munitions, including airplanes, had passed through Hong Kong to supply the needs of the Chinese armies for an entire year. Since then, and up until the fall of Canton on October 21, in spite of the persistent efforts of the Japanese, the railway has continued to run and the flow of munitions has kept up.

China's Bid for Support.

During the year, while her armies were engaged on all fronts, China strove, through her League of Nations representative at Geneva and through her agents and unofficial bodies, to win sympathy and support in her resistance to the Japanese invasion.

In February, after Chancellor Hitler had announced in the Reichstag that Germany would recognize the puppet State of Manchukuo, and had remarked in the course of his speech that the Chinese were unfit to cope with the menace of Bolshevism, the Chinese protested vigorously to the German Government, through an official newspaper, stating that 'Hitler not only repudiated his own promises made five years ago not to recognize the bogus State, but, by calling Japan a stabilizing force in the Orient, he is merely encouraging brigandage.'

China also protested through her delegate to the League of Nations, Dr. Wellington Koo, at the one hundredth session of the Council of the League in February, against the unwillingness of the League to enforce sanctions against Japan for her undeclared and unjustified war on China. The League Council would do nothing more, however, than pass a resolution affirming its sympathy for China in her struggle and express a hope that individual nations would consider steps to help in a just settlement of the conflict.

Madame Chiang Kai-shek and Aviation.

Late in this same month, Madame Chiang Kai-shek resigned her post as director of China's air forces, which she had been supervising, aided by a staff of European and American experts and advisers. While she was in office, she played an important rôle in building up the air force by replacing many obsolete types of machines with modern American and German ones, including bombing and pursuit planes. As Secretary General of Aviation, she had charge of all purchases, contracts, and administrative affairs; and her tenure of office was marked by efficiency and integrity, both of which had been lacking in this department before she took charge. Madame Chiang, all through the war, often has worked as long as sixteen hours a day in the headquarters of the Nationalist Army at Nanking and later at Hankow. She shared a room with her husband at Headquarters and has remained in constant touch with the situation by telephone and wireless.

In the last days of February, China's airplanes, for the first time, carried the war into Japanese territory, when they flew to the Island of Taiwan and bombed three cities there, causing great consternation among the Japanese and inviting reprisals in the form of attempts to destroy some of China's principal air bases. Little real damage, however, was caused on either side.

Solidifying the Nation for Mass Resistance; Victory at Taierchwang.

In March, in an effort to further plans for greater national solidarity and organize mass resistance to Japan, the Kuomintang National Congress met with the Communist delegates, and Chiang Kai-shek was voted into supreme command of these activities. Much had already been done along this line, especially in the northern part of China, where the activities of guerillas and partisans had proved a serious stumbling block to the Japanese advance.