Chu Teh and Mao Tse-tung

Leaders of New China

ROM the ancient walls of China’s old capital, for the Children of Hah on October 1.

re-echoed to singing students, soldiers and citizens.

By JEAN KOVICH

Peking, restored now to its former name, twenty-eight salvos heralded the new era

The town squares, streets, alleys, the tnumphal arches of forgotten conquerors echoed and Mao Tse-tung, whose political leadership has brought China to the threshold of

knew them

her great future after a quarter-century of struggle against the dying past proclaimed the new People’s Republic of China.

Throughout the length and breadth of China, a war-weary people rejoiced. At last the refu- gees could turn homewards, the long, long trek over, to begin the vast task of healing their land of its wounds. At last the nation could proceed with the work of peaceful reconstruction.

Even as the people returned home, so the government return- ed to Peking, the old capital. Ex- cept for a few years, when the government was moved to Nan= king by the Kuomintang, the cen- ter

gol empire extended from _ Sib- eria beyond Moscow to Mesopo- tamia. ; Peking, the present city, was built around the fourteenth cen- tury—is symbolic of China, for here ig the rich heart of Chinese culture. It is probably the most written about city on earth. Cer- tainly nowhere on earth is there evidence of creative arts and erafts over so many centuries. Peking is also the economic Kub of China. Through its command

way to the regions beyond the Great Wall. To the south stretch. the rich and fertile faims of the Whang Ho (Yellow River) plains, the vineyards, the date orchards and the wheat, and the silk indus- try of Shantung and Shansi. — “The city also commands the narrow stretch between the “mountains and the sea to.the east called Shan Hai Kwan: @ I would like to be there now

to greet old friends in the libera- ~ ‘ fat, clean and no longer had a

tion army and among the péople to shake the hand of some of the doctors and nurses I once knew,

with whom I worked and who,.

like myself, were only youths 10

years ago. \ Most of all I:would like to see

of government has always’ been Peking, even when the Mon-

a few of the thousand “or more little fellows who adopted the 8th Route army transport which took Dr. Norman Bethune and myself to safety not many hours ahead of a Japanese flying column.

The youngsters, ranging from six to nine years of age, wé@re on their own) their parents either killed or lost in the confusion of incessant bombing. They went around together stealing food to live as best they might. They all adopted us the transport, because we had rice and they stuck with us practically to Yen- nan, : :

The quartermaster just shrug- ged hig shoulders and said, “Well,

I just can’t let them starve.”

When they moved in on us they were ragged, some withwonly a loin cloth on and some with only cloth shoes on. Their skin was pulled tight over huge pot bellies and their! arms and legs were unbelievably \thin. The quarter- master had uniforms in his stores and since it was questionable as to whether all the supplies could

ef the Mongol es it is the gate, ; ‘be saved, ee se were pit out-

fitted. The 8th Route army Hocame

home, mother, father and family _ to the kids. And there were thousands of them all through

the ny’s territory. They all entered the aimy schools where they were taught to read and write and learned a trade, or be- came soldiers. .

I happened to meet a_ couple of them a while later and I did not recognize them. They were

hunted look, but a mischievous glint in their eyes. They are grown to manhood now, and like most Chinese children they will

look after their kinfolk and guard

them well.

/

And then I would like to see the women — not the youngsters just coming up, but the house- wives and farm women, the ones in the backwoods who learned how to read newspapers when they were taught by the guerrilla units.

In old China a wo6man was a Shao Hwa Di, a person who made the fire to boil the family por- ridge pot and not much more. She obeyed her lord and master and-boie him children.

When the liberation army came She learned to read and write, joined a co-operative study group, learned how to help herself, and became aware that the world did not end at the outskirts of her village. The youngsters will take socialism for granted, but the old- er women had a big part in pre- paring the foundation.

e .

I have been singularly honored. being one of the few Canadians personally acquainted with all three of the chiefs of the new government. Seldom in one gen- eration in a given country have there emerged ‘three such leaders adequate in their own right to fill the job ahead of them.

They are men who passionately ‘believe in the cause they cham- ‘pion, their loyalty is unquestion- able, and they are’as different in

character and personality as the

seasons. The isolation and the. Spartan life in the Shensi hills

_ during the years before the Sian

affair produced brilliant a and hardy men, capable of sur- mounting any difficulty or endur-, ing ha1dship. :

They were shown no mercy — they asked none — and to trai- tors and enemies they. will show, none. They have survived twenty’ odd years of essentially vicious

civil war, and anyone who be-

lieves that these men will fall short of their objective in China’s socialism, is indulging in wishful thinking.

The golden era of Free. Enter- prise Unlimited is over in China, but the Chinese Communists will ‘trade with anyone who is willing to do. business with them on equal footing. Free Enterprise Un- limited may no longer pick the pockets of the Chinese people.

The last time I saw Mao Tse °

Tung was in the cave at Yennan which housed the politburo of the

Chinese Communist party. I was

with the late Brig. General Evans Carlson, j ,

A Hunanese, Mao -Tse-Tung was born in 1893 of a moderately well off peasant family. In 1911 he entered the Hunan army as a private soldier and participated in the revolt against the Man- chus, led by Dr. Sun Yat Sen.

Mao stayed in the army only a few months and then: resumed his

studies to become a teacher, After

graduating from normal school, he went to the National Univer- sity in Peking~ to continue his education. It was there he met his wife, Yan Kai Hui, who was killed by Nationalist soldiers dur- ing the massacre at Hankow in 1930.

At Peking, he took upon jhim- / self the task of organizing China’ 's-

_ students and workers.

In 1927 he was arrested and jailed, but he escaped befosl: ‘orders were received sa his exe- cution.

Mao fled to Ghingwasehast where he met Chu Teh, to begin rebuilding the Communist party, of which, since it came into being ‘in 1921, he has been the chairman and guiding figure,

During the war years Mao lived

PACIETO

» dier.

simply with his wife, Li Lin, a former movie actress from Shang- hai, who came to Yennan almost at the same time as I did to at- tend the school in gueurilla tac- tics,

Mao, who possesses a biting wit and keen sense of humor, gives the impression of being effemi- nate—his hands are small and fine and his forehead is topped by an unruly shock of jet black hair. There is however, nothing effeminate about him when he pounds the. table with his small fist and says, “What you need, comrade, ig a little bit of self dicipline.”

e ’

Chu Teh is almost a direct anti- thesis of Mao so far as make-up, personality and education is con- cerned.. First, Chu is and al- ways has been a professional sol- The cast of his body is powerfful—strong of limbs’ and heavy of feature. By nature he is warm and friendly. The color of his skin is dark bronze and he has almost a grizzled appearance

‘due to the hard and rigorous life

in the open with his army.

He is not given to niceties and prefers to call a spade a spade; in fact his directness is some- times irritating. But he is loved and respected and esteemed by every man in the army.

My first meeting with Chu Teh, who wears no insignia to tell you whom you are talking to, was in the courtyard of the 8th Route army barracks in Sian—the com- mander was busy giving a little soldier boy a soup-bowl haircut.

He kidded about the youngster having a girl friend down the street and wanting a real modern hain’ cut—and not a shave. “Oh

a shave is good enough for old ©

Chu anyway.

Chu, who is the son of a wealthy family in south Szechuan, was graduated from the Yunan Mili- tary Academy in 1911, By. 1916 he was a brigade commander and

)soon he became the aide-de-camp

to the governor of Yunan. In 1921 he became interested in the

‘ “new movement” and joined the™

Communist party.

In 1921 he was sent to Germany to study the files of the German General Staff. He was twice ar- rested in the Weimar Republic for Communist activities and fi- nally he was asked to leave.

He returned to China in 1926 during the first united front of the Kuomintang and Communist party. He became an army poli- tical commissar and then head of the Whampao Military Academy, and chief of police of Nanchang.

After the split with Chiang, he took command of the Ninth army and Ied the Nanchang rebellion. His men were slaughtered and many were taken prisoner and

Chu himself was forced to flee,

finally linking forces with Mao. Since the Nanchang rebellion Chu has never lost a ney Chu Teh is probably one of the most brilliant and most able. mili- tary strategist China has ever had. He ig not called the father

of the liberation army Rrargut

reason. e ’

Chou En-lai, China's new pre- mier, is also a native of South China, His father was an edu- cator and his mother was a scho- lar. After the establishing of the Republic under Dr. Sun, Chou’s family moved to Manchuria, in 1913.

When he was 15 years of age he entered Nankai middle school

“in Tientsin and after four years

graduated. He spent a year at Waseda University in Japan, but finished his studies at Nankai ‘University.

At Nankai he became interested in China’s revolution, Rich, handsome, brilliant by “either Chinese or foreign standards, Chou soon became a respected

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TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 11, 199—PAGE 4,

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