Give Back My Rivers and Hills! By I. Feng. Translated
by Innes Jackson. (Macmillan. 8s. 6d.) MR. FENG, one of the comparatively few young Chinese intellectuals to go on active service with a field formation, was attached in a semi- political, semi-intelligence capacity to the 114th Division of the 51st Chinese Army during the 1938 campaigns in the Lunghai Railway area. It was a black period for China, redeemed only by her striking but. short-lived success at Taierhchuang, and-Mr. Feng has a grim story to tell of withdraWal and hardship. He tells it; unfortunately, with a strong admixture of polite fictions. " But none of us noticed the iron cold of that winter night ; our hearts were on fire to meet the enemy! " . . . " Cooked noodles and boiled dumplings appeared everywhere—a sign of prosperity brought about by the frequent passage of troops." There is much more of this sort of stuff, and Mr: Feng's postulate that every Chinese soldier is aggressive, chivalrous and popular with the civil population has the same damaging effect On his narrative as it would have had if he had been writing about the British or any other army. His own experiences are vividly and Modestly related, and one can only regret that a veil of euphemism blurs the outlines of what might, if presented with candour and objectivity, have been a fascinating and important picture.
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