Foreign News: Ma v. Marx

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While Red armies swept unchecked toward Canton, news came of a jolt to Communist hopes in China's far Northwest. Last month 120,000 Reds under General Peng Teh-huai had chased an old Nationalist adversary, moody General Hu Tsung-nan, from the stronghold of Sian (see map). The way to rich Szechuan province and its famed capital Chungking seemed open. Instead, Communist Peng's men, thrusting on from Sian, rushed into a trap; it was the Chinese Red army's first defeat since the start of their all-out offensive.

The trap was sprung by hard-riding horsemen of Ma Pufang, the Moslem boss of China's Northwest. First, retreating Hu Tsung-nan made a stand some 75 miles from Sian. Then, swooping from the mountains in the Communist rear, Ma's cavalry, about 20,000 strong and led by Ma's 29-year-old son, Major General Ma Chi-yuan, took the Reds by surprise, cut them up, forced them into ragged retreat. Last week, Ma's cavalry were still carrying on the fight against four Communist armies in the vicinity of Sian. For awhile, at least, both the Northwest and Szechuan would be valiantly defended.

The New Boss. The tidings of his son's victory reached Ma Pufang as he was settling down in his big stone headquarters outside the walls of Lanchow, gateway to the Northwest. The dying Nationalist government had appointed him supreme commander of an area about 13 times as big as Texas, mostly wasteland, underdeveloped and underpeopled (about 14 million—one-third Han Chinese, one-third Moslem Chinese, and the remainder Tibetans, Turkis, Mongolians, Kazaks). Ma's elevation put the Northwest on its own. His land was a poor holding in comparison with the lost coastal regions and lush river valleys, but, until conquered, it would be a thorn in the flesh of Communist China.

Ma began his rule in characteristic style. From Sining, capital of his own

Chinghai province, where he has been lord and governor since 1936, he sent a column of his Moslem cavalry to Lanchow. They pitched their white tents and grazed their horses on the city's airfield, took over the guard of public buildings. Ma was making sure that Nationalist troops in Lanchow would not revolt against him. Then, unannounced, he followed in a green Buick escorted by a truckful of bodyguards.

The Old Pillar. Black-bearded, burly Ma Pufang, now 46, has been a pillar of anti-Communist strength in the Northwest ever since his troops hurled back the Communists of the Long March in 1934-35. A highhanded but benevolent despot, he has also given his spare, dry, upland Chinghai province (pop. 1,500,000) some of China's best roads, extensive irrigation works and a spectacular reforestation program. Over 13 years he supervised the planting of millions of willow, poplar and acacia seedlings to shade the roads, check riverbank erosion, supply fuel. "Even when I was a little boy," he once explained, "I liked to plant trees. In Chinghai, trees mean greenery and water, life and abundance. I sought to persuade my kin and friends to plant trees. I had no power then and made little headway. But as governor I acquired the power to persuade . . ."