CHINA: Sleep, Little Precious

For weeks the outside world has been eagerly panning the stream of propaganda that pours out of Red China for nuggets of news about the health and whereabouts of Dictator Mao Tse-tung.

Last December Mao mysteriously vanished from the public eye, and rumors cropped up that Peking was concealing news of his death. There was even one report that Mao, 63, had died following an operation for cancer.

When China's recently appointed constitutional committee held its first meeting a fortnight ago, however, the Peking radio offhandedly reported that Committee Chairman Mao had presided. Last week Peking papers arriving in Hong Kong carried seemingly genuine likenesses of Mao—looking thinner than usual—posing with 25 other members of the constitutional committee. While this made it almost certain that Mao is alive, his strange and unprecedented absence from important party meetings over a 14-week period remained unexplained. So in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Formosa, rumors persist that he is sick.

The Chinese Communist press, naturally, ignores such rumors, has confined most of its recent comment about Mao to plugs for a new lullaby that is being urged on party mothers. Sample stanza:

Sleep, little Precious

How lucky you are!

Chairman Mao is beside your cradle night and day,

Smiling affectionately, kissing you lightly.

His smile is like the sun in winter!

His kiss is like honey . . .

How sweet it is to be in Chairman Mao's bosom!

Sleep, little Precious.

How lucky you are!