Page Tour

PEHEOPLE’?S ADVOCATE

July 23, 1937

Whither China

URING the four months
I spent in Red China I
travelled the whole length
of the main Red roads in

Shensi, Kansu and Ninghsia.

For four weeks I was with
the Red Army at the front.

In Pao-an, the provisional capi-
tal, I interviewed many of the
leading Soviet functionaries, in-
cluding Mao Tse-tung, chairman
of the Chinese Central Soviet gov-
ernment and one of China’s most
brilliant military commanders.

As far as Mao-tung was con-
cerned, miy interviews were al-
ways obtained at night, frequent-
ly Jasting till one or two in the
morming, for Mao usually does
iis heaviest work after midnight,
a habit which may be traced to
his early career as a newspaper-
man.

Naturally, conversation centred
jargely around the vital subject
of Ghina’s attitude toward Japan.

“linder what conditions can
the Chinese people defeat and
exhaust the forces of Japan?” IT
asked him on one occasion.

“Three conditions will guarantee
our success,” Mao replied. “First,
achievement of the national united
front against Japanese imperial-
ism in China; second, formation of
a world anti-Japanese united front;
third, revolutionary action by the
oppressed peoples at present suf-
fering under Japanese imperialism.
Of these, the central necessity is
union of the Chinese people them-
selves.”

“Bow long do you think such a
war would last?” was my next
question.

“That depends on the strength
of the Chinese People’s Front,
many conditioning factors in China
and Japan, and the degree of in-
ternational help given to China,
as well as the rate of revolutionary
deyelopment in Japan,” Mao
stated. “If the Chinese People’s
Front is powerfully homogeneous,
if it is effectively organized hori-
zontally and vertically, if the inter-
national aid to China is consider
able from those governments
which recognize the menace of
Japanese imperialism to their own
interests. if revolution comes
quickly in Japan, the war will be
short and victory speedily won.

“Tf these conditions are not
realized, however, the war will be
very long, but in the end just the
same Japan will be defeated, only
the sacrifices will be extensive and
it will be a painful period for the
whole world. The Chinese Commu-
nist party, the Soviet government,
the Red Army, and the Chinese

Rito Saison

The strictly censored Japanese press is ft
fanning smouldering fires of patriotism to the i
way to attend a guilitary review.

don gas masks on thewr

people are ready to unite with any
power to shorten the duration of
this war, but if none joins us we
are determined to carry on alone.”

*
HEN I asked him what, in
his opinion, would be the

probable course of development of
such a war, particularly in regard
to the policies of foreign powers,
Mao said that Japanese continental
policy was already fixed and was
well known. Those who imagined
that by further sacrifices of Chi-
nese sovereignty, by making eco-
nomic, political or territorial com-
promises and concessions, they
eould halt the advance of Japan,
were only indulging in Utopian
strategy. Nanking had in the past
adopted erroneous policies based
on this strategy, and we had only
fo look at the map of East Asia to
see the results of it,

“But,” he continued, “we know
well enough that not only North
China but the lower Yangtze Val-
ley and our southern seaports are
already included in the Japanese
continental program. Moreover, it

by
EDGAR SNOW
: China
Correspondent
of the
Daily Herald,
London

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is just as clear that the Japanese
navy aspires to blockade the China
seas and to seize the Phillippines,
Siam, Indo-China, Malaya and the
Dutch Hast Indies.

“Tn the event of war, Japan will
try to make them her strategic
bases, cutting off Great Britain,
France and America from China
and monopolizing the seas of the
Southern Pacific. These moves are
included in Japan’s plans of naval
stratezy, copies of which we have
seen. And such naval stratesy will
pe coordinated with the land strat-
egy of Japan.

“China will of course be in an
extremely difficult position at such
a time. But the majority of the
Ghinese people believe it can over-
come these difficulties. Only the
"ich men in China’s SeaportS are
defeatists. They are afraid they
will lose their property.

*
(ET DEALLY, of course, our mili-
tary strategy should be the

ul of false reports
consuming flame of war... . Hven priests

strategy of the “inner front.” That
is, if the foreign nations, if Great
Britain, America, France and the
USSR resist the Japanese block
ade, they will arrange themselves
in the stratesy, of the “outer
front.”. China would then fight in
jhe milicu of Japanese imperialism
while the other countries opposed
Japan on the periphery. In such a
situation the possible encirclement
and crushing of Japan’s imperial
war machine in a brief period
would be manifest. =

“Many people think it would be
impossible for China to continue
her fight apainst Japan, once the
Jatter had seized certain Strategic
points on the coast, and enforced
a blockade.

“Phis is nonsense. To refute it,
we have only to refer to the his-
tory of the Red Army. Jn certain
periods our forces have been ex-
ceeded numerically some ten or
twenty times by the Kuomintang
troops, which were also superior to
us in equipment. Their economic
‘resources many times Surpassed
ours and they received material
assistance from the outside. Why
then, has the Red Army scored suc-
cess after success against the
White troops and not only sur-
vived but increased its power till
today?

*
f Pace explanation is that the Red
Army and the Soviet govern-
ment had ‘created among all people
within their areas a rocklike soli-
darity, because everyone in the So-
viet was ready to fight for their
eovernment against its oppressors,
because every person was volun-
tarily and consciously fighting for
his own interests and what he be-

lieved to be right.

“Second, in the struggle of the
Soviets the people were led by
men of ability, strength and deter-
mination, equipped with deep
understanding of the strategic
political, economic and military
needs of their position-

“The Red. Army won its many
victories—beginning with only a
few dozen xifles in the hands of
determined revolutionaries — he-
cause its solid base in the people
attracted friends even amon the
White troops, among the civilian
populace as well aS among the
troops. Lhe enemy was infinitely
our superior militarily, but politi-
eally it was immobilized.

“The central point of the prob-
Jem,’ Mao pointed out in conclu-
sion, “becomes the mobilization
and unification of the entire Chi-
nese people and the building up of
a people’s united front, such as
has been advocated by the Com-
munist party ever since 1932.”

of Chinese atrocities,

Canada’s Youth Is

6 E used to talk about

the ‘lost generation’
of the Great War,” a school
teacher said to me the other
day over a cup of coffee in a
Granville street cafe, “but
the last few years have pro-
duced another ‘lost genera-
tion’ — the generation of
youth for whom society can
find no gainful use.”

I thought back a few weeks to
the provincial election when a
prominent politician with impres-
sive gestures was declaring to his
audience that “the future belongs
to youth.”

And, thinking back a little
farther to the Second Canadian
Youth Congress, I could not help
feeling that no matter how much
the young generation has suffered
from lack of leadership and guid-
ance in the past, today it is a
generation which is rapidly find-
ing itself. No one attending that
memorable Congress eould have
failed to gain the impression that
this generation has not only found
direction but the means of achiev-
jng its goal.

The building of the inclusive
youth movement at which were
represented over half a million
young Canadians from every walk
of life, has ehanged the scene
somewhat.

HHILE it is true that the future
belongs to youth, youns Ca-
nadians wanted to know who it
was that said they could not have
the present as well.

Insisting that by winning the
present for youth they can best
safeguard the future, they made
history at their Congress when
they drafted two documents on so-
cial security and peace which form
the basis for co-operation of all
Canadian young people.

What was the essence of their
findings that they should mean 50
much to the young and older peo-
ple of this Dominion?

Summing up their position on
social justice and internal peace,
the ambassadors of youth
stated that, “there has to be a
definite improvement in the social
and economic conditions of the
Canadian people before there can
be any possibility of achieving
social justice or internal peace.”
And the Congress backed this
pronouncement with a number of
constructive proposals as to how
the standard of living can be im-
proved.

First of all, they asked, “Why
shouldn't the people of Canada,
engaged in industry and com-
merce, have the right to belong
to a trade union of their own
choice, and why shouldn’t we have
the democratic right, by law, to
collective bargaining?”

From this discussion sprang

youth’s demand of dominion and
provincial governments that they
introduce legislation to safeguard
this right to organize-

Case after case can be cited of
the terrible conditions under
which young people labor, of the
semi-starvation wages they re-
ceive. Im face of this situation,
dangerous to the immediate well-
being and future health of the
maturing generation, the Con-
eress asked that steps be taken
to safeguard the health of work-
ing people and secondly, proposed
that the responsible governments
institute minimum wage laws to
raise living standards and further
asked that strict measures be
taken against any employer con-
travening the act.

ULE not only was the Gongress
concerned with the lot of
the employed youth, but also with
fhe unemployed. The contradic-
tion between the abundance of
Canada and the deplorable pov-
erty of its unemployed had an in-
fluence on all delegates. :
Finally, the Congress proposed
that a wide public works program
be started in which youth will be
employed and paid in eash at
trade union wage rates.

Many recommendations dealing
with the need for more recrea-
tional and educational facilities
for the young people advanced by
delegates from all parts of the

An Interview with Mao-Tse-tung

HE Red Army today not only

occupies the greatest single con-
nected territory in its history, but
its forces are probably numerically
ereater in this area than at any
time except perhaps at the height
of the Red power in Kiangsi. All
the main forees of the Red Army
eonnected successfully in iXansu,
in early October, 1936, when Chu
Teh, Ho Lung, Hsu Hsiang-ch'ien,
and Chang Kuotao leading their
troops from Szechuen and Hsikineg,
broke through the cordons of
Nanking troops and ereatly ex-
tended the Red base in the North-
west.

The Red forces were reorganized

and are now grouped under a
triple command known as the
First, Second, and Fourth Front

Anti-Japanese Red Armies. In ad-
dition to these basic forces, there
is a command in Shensi known as
the Bast Front Army, and there
are many hundreds of Red parti-
Sans, Red guards and peasant
guards.

I estimate that the combined
strength of the three main armies
is between 90,000 and 100,000 men.

Most of these troops are well
equipped with modern rifles and
they haye automatic rifles, ma-

chine guns, and light artillery, all
of which appears to have been cap-
tured from enemy troops.

The Reds have two divisions of
cavalry, mounted chiefly on
Ninghsia ponies captured from

General Ma Huneg-kuei. They are
expert horsemen, and are the only
cavalry in China trained to charge

mounted with sabres.

There is also a Mohammedan
Red Army and some Mongol parti-
san detachments have been armed
in Ninghsia and Suiyan.

HESE, then, are the “remnant

Reds” against whom Gen-
eralissimo Chiang intended to
launch his sixth final-extermina-
tion drive when the dramatic

events occurred in Sianfu last De-
eember.

In an interview with Yang Shan-
kun, the 29-year-old Chairman of
the Political department of the
First Front Red Army, I gathered
the following significant facts:

First of all, many people sup-
pose the Reds to he a hard-bitten
lot of outlaws and malcontents-
From my observation, this is a
mistaken conception. The ereat
mass of the Red soldiery is made
up of young peasants and workers
who believe themselves to he fight-
ing for their homes, their Jand and
their country—and in most cases
this is literally true.

The average age of the yank and
file in the Red Army is 19. My
own impression is that it is in a
true sense an army of youth, both
mentally and physically.
youths are deeply imbued with a
cause and mission. They are also
extremely patriotic. If you ask
them why they are Reds, they will
usually say, first, because they
want to fight imperialistic Japan,
and second, because they hate the
Jandlords and usurers.

In the First Pront Red Army,
which is commanded by Peng Teb-
huai, 25 per cent of the men come
from the agrarian working class
(including craftsmen, muleteers,
apprentices, fatm laborers, etc.);
3 per cent come from the industrial

inding

country were accepted.

One of the achievements be-
tween the first and second Youth
Congress was the setting aside
of $1,000,000 by -the dominion gov-
ernment for youth rehabilitation.
This money was to be given to
the provinces provided proyin-
eial governments contributed a
like amount.

Largely through the influence
of the Greater Vancouver Youth
Council, the provincial govern-
ment appropriated $100,000 which,
with an equal amount from the
dominion government places
$200,000 at their disposal for the
needs of British Columbia's youth.

This money has been available
for many weeks. What is the gov-
ernment going to do with Ive
Surely the young people of BC
have the right to know. The youth
of this province must make them-
selves heard as to how this money
will be spent.

(75 AR is not inevitable, Peace

W can be attained in our
time.’ were the two phrases that
emphatically graced the introduc-

tion to the findings on “World
Peace.”
Several interesting incidents

marked discussion and endorsa-
tion of the principle of collective
action and the League of Wations,
as well as an independent peace
policy for Canada unattached to
any other nation.

These*

A Way

Chinese students in Petping. ancient Chinese capital now menaced by Japanese artil-
lery, demand that China unite against Nippon’s insatiable imperialists and refuse to cede

any further territory.

working class; 58 per cent come
from the peasantry; and 4 per cent
come from the petty-bourgeoisie—
intellectuals, Sons of small land-
Jords, and rich peasants. In this
army over 50 per cent of the rank
and file, as well as commanders,
are members of the Communist
party or the Communist Youth
League.

About 70 per cent of the soldiers
ean read and write simple letters
and texts, posters, and handbills.
(The percentage in the local armies
js somewhat lower). This is much
higher than the literacy average of
the Shensi peasantry, where il-
literacy seems to affect about 95
per cent of the population.

Red soldiers from the day of
{heir enlistment begin to study
characters from Red texts special-
ly prepared for them, and they are
also given daily political lectures.

Mhese soldiers, like their com-
manders, receive no Wages, but
every Red soldier is supposed to
eet his portion of land and some
income from it. Food, clothing,
plankets, all their necessaries, are
furnished by the army. Confisca-
tions are never made by individual
soldiers, and strict punishment is
provided for any theft of personal
belongings.

Soldiers are required to pay for
everything they buy and intimida-
tion of small merchants and ped-
dlers is forbidden. The only locked
doors I saw in the Soviet districts
were on the building housing the
archives of the Soviet government,
and on the Red arsenals and muni-
tions storerooms. I stayed in all
Sorts of strange places, with peas-
ants, put I never lost anything.

2

4 ae make-up of the local inde-
pendent armies by provinces
is as follows: Shensi and Shansi,

natives, 54 per cent; Honan, 14
per cent; Anhui, 13 per cent;
Hupeh, 9 per cent; Jianegsi, 2

per cent; and Tung-pei (or North-
western troops), 5-6 per cent. In the
Front Armies, of which there are
three, there is a much bigger per-
centage of southerners. The First
Army Corps includes some Miao,

Lolo, and Mohammedan soldiers
and squad commanders. The 2nd
and 4th Front Armies include

Tibetans and Mongols.

The average age of the officers
in the Red Army is 24. This in-
cludes squad commanders as well
as army commanders. Cadres
above the rank of battalion com-

mander are all party members,
with one or two exceptions. All
company commanders or higher

are literate—though I met several
who had not learned to read and

write till after they had entered
the Red Army.
Regimental and higher com-

manders, despite their youth, have
behind them an average of eight

Of all the delegates in the
Peace Commission, only one young
woman arose to speak for Cana-
dian rearmament. But so alien to
delegates was this sentiment that
almost all who followed ignored
her opinions, attacking instead
the spending of millions of dol-
lars while tens of thousands of
youth go hungry.

Here it was significant that
many had been mistaken as 10
the nature and political outlook of
the mass of French Canadian
youth. Some had pictured every
young French-Canadian as a4
miniature Duplessis, with a pad-
lock sticking out of his pocket.
However, much to the surprise of
many, the majority of French-
Canadians at the Congress were
jn accord with other delegates on
the numerous problems of youth.

interests
or

A question which
every young man is whether
not he can be conscripted in event

of war. Reactionary politicians,
such as the Hon. Ernest La-
Pointe. have repeatedly an-

nounced that conscription is dead.
But the Congress proved other-
wise. Under the Militia Act, as=
revised in 1927, the youth of this
country can be eonseripted for
war by erder-in-council. This was
definitely established and round-
ly denounced.

years of fighting experience each.

Among Red commanders and so-
viet functionaries are some former
Whampoa cadets, college and
middle school graduates, former
Kuomintang officers, former of-
ficers of the old Tungpei Army,
and many returned students from
France, England, Germany and
Soviet Russia, though I met only
one from America.

The majority of the soldiers as
well as officers of the Red Army.
are unmarried, or ‘‘divorced’’—
that is, they have left their wives
and families behind them. Reds
don’t call themselves ping, or sol-
diers, incidentally, but chan-shih,
or ‘fighters.’ There are scarcely |
any Communist women at the
front with the army, and these are s
nearly all Soviet functionaries in
their own right or married to So-
viet officials.

So far as I could see or learn
the Reds treat the peasant women
and girls with respect, and the
peasantry seem to have a sood
opinion of Red Army morality. I
heard of no case of rape or abuse
of the peasant women.

-Wery few of the Reds smoke or
drink. P’ene Teh-huai, Commander

Can a United China
Defeat Japanese
Imperialism?

*

Mao-Tse-tung
Believes lt Can

of the First Front Army, who used
to be a Kuomintang General, once
remarked to me that the extreme
youth of the Red Army explains
much of its capacity for standing
hardship. It also makes the proo-
lem of feminine companionship
jess poignant. P’eng himself has
not seen his own wife since 1928
when he led an uprising of Kuo-
mintang troops and joined the
Reds.

*

ASUALTIES among Red Army
commanders are very high.
They customarily go into battle
side by side with their men, from

‘regimental commanders down.
During the first and second
final annihilation campaigns led
by the Kuomintang, casualties
were often as high as 50 per cent.
But the army could not stand
these sacrifices, and later adopted
tactics tending somewhat to re-
duce the risk of life by experienced

commanders and subalterns-
Weyertheless, in the Iifth and
jast Kiangsi campaign Red com-

manders’ casualties averaged about
25 per cent of the total. You can
see plenty of evidence of this in
the Red districts today. Common
sights are youths still in their
early twenties with an arm miss-
ing, or fingers shot away, or ugly
wounds on the head or anatomy
but still fighting for their reyvolu-
tion.

In the Red Army there is, of
course, a daily schedule of physi-
eal, mental, military, and
political training. Keen competi-
tion is encouraged in sports like
broad-jumping, high-jumping, wall-
sealing and running. Two hours
of Character study daily are com-
pulsory, and this takes place in
the clubrooms of each squad and
company, and is usually conducted

social

by the squad or company com-
mander. There is practice in
marksmanship, riding, tactics,

bayonet drill, and foot drill.

Hours of recreation are spent in
playing games, singing Songs, writ-
ing for the wall newspapers, study
groups of various kinds, and so on.

ae

CTUALLY the Red warrior
doesn’t have a bad life.

It seemed to me that they spent
about half their time singing. They
have literally hundreds of songs
of their own, and are forever mak-
ing up new ones. In the Red en-
ecampments you can nearly always
hear some squad or regiment at its
singing lessons. There are compe-
ftitions at Singing, and prizes are
provided for those most expert at
it. Believe it or not, they sing very
well, and at night the sound is

_ thrillins, or in the case of the
partisans, terrifying.

I met a serious-minded engineer
in We Ch'i Hsien who stated that
his criticism of the Red Army was

“they spend altogether too much
time singing.”
I really believe that the Red

soldiers I met were probably the
happiest poor people I haye seen
in China.

Their life is of course very hard:
plain, simple food, poor clothing,
and one hardship after another.
But everybody lives the same, from
Chu Teh or P’enge Tehphuai down
to the rank and file soldiers and I
eannot describe what a difference
this makes in morale. Suffering
can take on a certain exaltation
and even increase morale of a mass
of revolutionary fighters.

- - - by Maurice Rush

PART from the success of the

Congress in reaching agree-
ment on its findings, its outstand-
ing achievement was in bringing
French and English speaking
youth into one movement. In that
attainment a new hope and in-
spiration was born.

Since the beginning of the
Congress, there had been 2 feeling
of uncertainty. Everyone knew
that certain conditions had been
pressed for by some French-Ca-
nadian youth leaders which
would. if endorsed, mean with-
drawal of many national organi-
zations from the Congress.

This uncertainty was aggravat
ed when it was announced that
there would be a special session
to discuss the conditions.

What would come next? Would
the Gongress split wide open?
Finally the French-Canadian co-
chairman took the microphone
and after a few introductory re-
marks announced that the seven
points for French-Canadian parti-
cipation had been revised and
were being presented with full
agreement of the presiding com-
mittee on all points.

They were read. There was si-
lence for one moment, then
leader after leader from caucus
groups and representatives from
Wational organizations, including
the Young Communist League,
arose to express endorsation of

the revised points.

There was but one exception.
That was from the Revolutionary
Youth League, a small sect of
young Trotskyists, who played
their traditional role of disrup-
tionists and splitters.

Their spokesman arose and be-
gan to attack the conditions.
When he finally announced that
under the circumstances they
would be compelled to withdraw
from the Congress, not heated
debate but terrific applause greet-
ed his statement.

The following morning the
young Trotskyists appeared with
a number of leaflets, which, in
ultra revolutionary phraseology
called upon young workers to
- break from the “Fascist church
youth,” and “the reactionary
Youth Congress.” =

Here the youth of Canada were
to learn the true role of Trotsky-
‘ism. Many could not understand
why the Trotskyists were being
eliminated in the Soviet Union
put in Montreal they could see
the Young Trotskyists (and later
in the Congress the young pro-
Fascists) striving desperately to
smash the unity which is so yital
to meet the immediate needs of
Canadian young people for peace
and economic improvement.

Finally the motion on the seven
conditions was put and accepted,

(Continued on Page Six)

inced tte co al ache Seca Ae