CHINA'S EXAMPLE

Evening Post, Volume C, Issue 40, 17 February 1942, Page 4

CHINA'S EXAMPLE

The visit .of • the great Chinese leader, General Chiang Kai-shek, and his wife to India, now drawing to a close, had for its main purpose, beyond doubt, the concerting of common action between India and China for the defence of their common interests against Japanese aggression, which has now passed bey6nd the frontiers of Burma and threatens China's life-line, the Burma Road. That must obviously be the first consideration in these critical days, and it has been stated already that the General has had full and frank talks with Service chiefs and that an understanding has been reached about collaboration in the defelide of Burma. Chinese troops are taking their places on the Burma frontier, and some have already been in action. Synchronising With the Generalissimo's mission to India fighting has been renewed ih China between the inVadefs and the defenders iri several ' places. The Chinese are more than holding their own, and, according to Mr. Owen Lattimore, the United States political adviser to Chiang, China is nearer to victory over Japan, after five years' fighting, than ever before. Even if the Burma Road Were cut, China wotild be able to continue her resistance, and China, he added, was one of the strongest sectors in the front of the united nations. For this fortunate position China has everything to thank her leader and his devoted wife. It is only How, after the allies of China, Britain arid Ariierica, have themselves experienced the full shock of Japanese military strength, launched at theiri iri 4 the Western Pacific, Malaya, and the Philippines, that the world is beginning to realise what the Chinese effort has really been in these terrible five years of invasion, with the "good earth" of China "scorched" by war1. Mr. Churchill, who has in his make-up 'the same quality of dogged courage and never surrender, could, with ! understanding pay a warm tribute of admiration to the Chinese and their leader in his broadcast, declaring it a comfort in a dark hour that we could now properly assess the j strength of the Chinese people under i General Chiang Kai-shek, who single* handed had fought the aggressor for four and a half years and left him baffled and dismayed. This capacity to take, punishment and not be down* hearted* to suffer losses and still fight on, is of inestiiriable value to a nation at war. It saved Britain after Dunkirk, it saved Russia against Napoleon and once more against Hitler, and it is bringing China through an even greater ordeal, for China, like Britain, has suffered sadly from lack of arms, and equip' ment adequate to meet the aggressor. This is true morale, and the example of China and her leaders is a worthy one to emulate in our hour of anxiety and distress.