CHINA: First Lady & Lindberghs

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Violent Hopes. Swish, splash, the Lindbergh plane alighted next day on a watery waste near Hinghwa, east of the Grand Canal and 70 miles from Nanking. With famished yells, Chinese in sampans and in tubs paddled for the plane, snatched at boxes of medical supplies which the two doctors proceeded to unload. "Ah, food!" cried a snatcher. Seizing some boxes of absorbent gauze he ripped one open, tried to eat the white stringy stuff, raged to find it not food. Other Chinese snatched, bit, fell to reviling the two doctors, one a Chinese. Said Colonel Lindbergh afterward: "It was one of the most heartrending, yet terrifying scenes I ever saw." Lest the plane be mobbed, swamped, destroyed, its motor roared. Dodging neatly between sampans, the Colonel put on speed. "As our ship took off," he related, "the people realized that no relief had arrived for them and their violent hopes sank. " Back in Nanking, the Colonel took counsel, announced that he would attempt no more succor flights. "I am convinced," said he, "that the only way to place doctors in the flooded towns would be to send them with a military escort." Later Col onel & Mrs. Lindbergh said they would make further "survey flights," would carry a League of Nations observer over China's flooded flats.