CHINESE 'PATRIOTS'

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 235, 3 October 1936, Page 7

CHINESE 'PATRIOTS'

| JUNKS ON TOUR. i ■ BRIDGING THE PACIFIC. GUAM'S NEW INDUSTRY. (By J. FARQUHARSON LEYS.) HONGKONG, September 4. True to the best traditions of the Chinese in their conduct of war, as it is called by foreigners for lack of a word to describe politics with a sting in its tail; General Chan Chai Tong left for Europe this week, with loud expressions of loyalty to Marshal Chiang Kai Shek who "defeated" him by buying him out. The general recently arrived here as a refugee on H.M.S. Moth. With a tongue as sharp as that of Governor Landon. the Republican nominee for President of the United States, who declared that if necessary to balance the Budget he and his wife would wash their own dishes in the White House, General Chan Cl ai Tong stated that to save his people from foreign invasion he would be glad to fight with them as one of their soldiers. At the time of this declaration the general was on board the luxurious Italian liner the Conte Verde, bound for France and Switzerland w'.th considerable of his people's money and s Magnificent wardrobe. He said rhe object of the voyage abroad was to study political economy and social conditions in Europe and America.

The move is curiously in accord with the words of the author of "My Country and My People," Mr. Lin Yu-tang, who has just returned to America for further writing. "In any major campaign," he wrote, "the silver bullets have always won. . . . The defeated general, according to the Chinese idea of fair play, is then given 100,000 dollars travelling expenses and sent on a 'tour of industrial investigatijn of Europe,' with the full knowledge n'lat in the next war his services may be needed by his present conqueror." The True Oriental Flavour. ! Some ten years ago a lone white man, who had acquired a full sea-going family in China, used them all, including the children, as the crew of his pukka Chinese junk and sailed it across the Pacific. Moored at the foot of busy streets in ports along the Pacific and Atlantic seaboards of the United States, it provoked thousands upon thousands of ten cent admission tickets from gaping townies who delighted in the rakish masts, the stern built up like a tenement house, and the crew of all ages from six to sixty eating rice from little bowls. All very simple, but a complete change of scene. Many an old China hand paid a visit, too, for there is nothing so completely and adequately full of that mysterious Oriental flavour as one of those beautiful sailing craft. Now there is another white man here —this time with money to spend—who has started supervising the building of another junk for the grand voyage. This time the objective is the New York World's Fair of 1939; the route to be followed, however, will take the junk to Europe, via Suez, on view to the public along the way, and thence across the Atlantic; probably the first time a Chinese sailing craft will have crossed the Western ocean. The Last Puff Vanishes. It is many centuries since the Chinese were leading the world in adventurous voyages beyond their seas, made possible by the confidence born of their invention of the mariner's compass. The Mongols, when in control of both Persia and China, cari'ied on trade by sea between them with junks carrying 12 or 14 sails and a crew of 250 men. Driven by steamers from the high seas, junks have been reduced to coasting vessels and are never seen beyond the fishing giounds. To show one to the outer world is a splendid idea. Some twenty "scientists" will be invited as passengers for the voyage, with accommodation included for their notebooks and movie cameras. The appeal is made for adventurers, and without doubt many will be found to buy adventure, but, when the secret is revealed, the spice seems lost. The prosaic truth is that a eeventy-five-foot schooner will convoy the junk the entire way, and, if that isn't enough to take the wind out of the adventurers' sails, the last puff of romance is lost overboard by the revelation that both vessels will be equipped with quite powerful Diesel engines. Beautiful and Happy Guam. Air service across the Pacific by PanAmerican Airways will bring passengers from the world at large for the first time to the beautiful island of Guam, in mid-Pacific. Until Honolulu was developed as a refitting post Guam was yearly visited by numbers of whalers. At the turn of the century it passed from Spanish to American hands, and has seldom been heard from since, except when the Commercial Pacific Company's cable was laid from San Francisco to Manila in 1903. That was the outcomc of a daring bid by John W. Mackav. In tin proposals to

the Government by companies toying with the idea of laying a cable across the vast ocean, one group had demanded a subsidy of one hundred thousand dollars annually, and another could only propose a Government-owned and operated line. Mackay agreed to lay a cable without aid of any kind, and to make the rate one dollar a word. As the entire island is now a naval station with its official personnel rapidly turning over, the natives are quite worldly wise, very healthy and prosperous. Many are given "health cruises" on Government vessels to China, Japan and the Philippines. Service in the militia is compulsory for men between IS and 25. At present there are 20,000 natives and 1300 others, in the whole island, the majority living in Agana, th» capital, and seldom going out of the town although the island is only some thirty miles around. Far. from being just a way-station with no interest to travellers, like Wake Island or Midway, Guam is a colourful and happy resort, brilliant green set in a circle of surf, with a cheerful life of its own. With its present owners you can be sure of good ice cream, candies, sanitation and cinema houses.