LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The Mind of the Chinese sui,—it is related of Napoleon Bonaparte that, on an occasion, placing his hand upon the map of China, he said: "There sleeps a giant ; then he awakes let the world beware." From the Boxer Rising onwards China has been arousing herself, under whatever dynasty and stimulus ; and those who have been privileged to sojourn in China until recent months testify to changes through the whole country that would not have been dreamed of fifty and even twenty years ago.
It is not the wishful-thinking of Mr. Attlee or Mr. Truman that affords the clue to the present-day military outlook in China. Admittedly Russia instigated China to invade Korea, and is conniving at her aggression, but it is the inscrutable mind of the ruling faction there today that needs to be fathomed. China demands something bigger than either Mr. Attlee or Mr. Truman visualises in their working policy, and is in no mood to be turned aside. The truculent tones of General Wu at Lake Success betray it.
Formosa is merely a pawn upon the board. For many years China acquiesced in Japan's occupation of the island, and in her ridding the mountain areas of the "head-hunters." It will fall again in the course of greater operations. The Dragon Flag of China is not yet forgotten, designed as it was to commemorate in advance a naval and military attack upon Japan. The invasion failed, but the flag—China swallowing the "sun" of Japan—and the ambition have prevailed. If China occupies Korea she will remain as its "liberator," and Japan will fall next. What better occasion than when Japan is in a demilitarised coadition? "The Japanese pushed the Americans out of the Philippines; we will push the Americans out of Japan." Formosa will fall in sequence. During the eighteenth century, under the Manchu regime, the Emperor Ch'ien Lung occupied Central Asia as far as the Caspian Sea. Tibet will be merely a marching-ground towards that objective again. Is this the mind of China today, eastward and westward ? What then of northward ?
Owing to female infanticide the male population of China largely exceeds the female Many Chinese are, on this account, unmarried and are a problem to their villages in respect of the food supply. The source of recruitment, therefore, for an army in the field is practically unlimited, especially if the personnel lives off the land as it moves forward. A million men killed, or not returnable, would be a relief to
their home areas. The limitations of such army would only be that- of ammunition. The horses now being !Aught from Mongolia as burden-beasts count as provision-supply. The baser Chinese on the emergency of starvation do not withhold from cannibalism.
The whole Mongoloid race, including Eastern Siberia and Japan, not to mention Cochin China, is approximately seven hundred millions. Such a race upon the move would be a menace even to Russia. If a project of this sort is under serious consideration, the delay caused by wishful-thinking on the part of the West w hut facilitate the Yellow Peril. Time is of no concern to the On —Yours faithfully,
// Riddlesdale Avenue, Tunbridge Wells. EDWARD THOMPSON.
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