WAR IN CHINA: Wang to Life

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Petrouchka, the puppet who came to life, had a counterpart in China last week. After months of adjusting the wires and setting the stage to dangle Puppet-elect Wang Ching-wei before Chinese eyes, the Japanese were dismayed to see him wriggle a bit, stand up on his own legs, and come right out with some shockingly out-of-character statements.

Through his Central China Daily News, Puppet-elect Wang said: "Japan's willingness to make peace with China does not signify friendliness but Japan's inability to defeat China." Japan, he declared, must either cooperate economically with China as an equal, or withdraw entirely. Later in the week he warned that the "new China would not agree to support Japan in any future war."

These amazing statements indicated that Wang Ching-wei had begun to feel himself in a strong position to bargain. Powerful factions in Japan want him installed as head of the "Chinese Government" as soon as possible; last week the Foreign Office Spokesman Yakichiro Suma called on Premier Nobuyuki Abe to urge haste. But even Wang Ching-wei does not trust the Japanese, and he has consistently refused to take office except on four conditions: 1) conclusion of a water-tight peace treaty; 2) return to the Chinese of railroads, customs, native-owned factories; 3) partial withdrawal of Japanese troops; 4) guarantees of eventual complete withdrawal except from North China and Manchukuo. Last week's bold statements indicated that Wang Ching-wei was beginning to have some hope for these demands.

> In North China death came to the old fox who was for many months Japan's greatest hope as a potential puppet—Marshal Wu Pei-fu, jovial poet, patriot, warlord. The Marshal died after an operation for an infected tooth. For a long time he led the Japanese to believe he would take the job they offered, but when the time came for his formal acceptance (at a party to which foreign correspondents were invited), he said to the Japanese, in effect: I shall become a puppet on the day when you little men go back to your little islands.