REPORT FROM RED CHINA

This is stimulating reading and revealing. One feels that Lin Yutang should have supplemented his journeys of investigation with this trip taken by a group of correspondents, of whom the author was one, to Red China. He might have found -- as they did -- that many of the things ostensibly opened for their investigation were deliberately stage-managed by the Kuomintang. He might also -- as they did -- have gone beyond the facade, inside the Border to Yenah and on up to the front, 1000 miles on horseback. In the process, they had a chance to see Communist China operating despite all efforts to mother it by blocking supplies. It has become almost self-sustaining, with homemade equipment, clothing, medicinal supplies, hospital supplies, etc. For the first time, the position of Red China in regard to the invaders is clarified -- the Japanese People's Emancipation League, active in resistance, and allied with the Underground, is explained -- the guerilla activities analyzed. Communist claims are known to Chungking, and verified -- but not announced. One fifth of the Chinese forces engage 49.5% of the Japanese and 90% of the puppet forces, with no aid since 1940, and at a cost of 400,000 casualties. The various facets of underground warfare -- the People's Armed Forces, the Youth Vanguards, the Women Militia -- as well as the New Fourth Army, are described. The political setup of Red China, a truly democratic organization, is shown, in its very composition making compromise with the Kuomintang difficult to achieve. In final chapters he describes the army hospitals, the quartermaster depots, the Red Front.