CHINA: In Peiping

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¶ Nelson Trusler Johnson, newly appointed U. S. Minister to China, arrived in Peiping last week, making his fifth official visit to the old time capital of China.

"Well," said he to Peiping's Mayor Chang Yen-wu, "it seems like being home again." Turning to a group of Nanking officials, he repeated the same remark in Mandarin Chinese. Chinamen applauded.

¶ From Peiping United Press Correspondent Demaree C. Bess heralded an amazing municipal comeback:

"In the first months after the capital was removed, Peiping's population fell from 1,300,000 to about 800,000, and thousands of shops were closed. During the past few months the population has again risen rapidly, and official figures now place the number of residents within the city at more than 1,200,000. Hundreds of shops . . . have reopened.

"Two reasons are given for Peiping's revival. One is the brisk increase in tourists from foreign countries. The other is that North China has been entirely free from civil wars since June 1928, when the Nationalists entered the city. . . .

"Peiping has been fortunate in possessing an able administration during this entire period, most of them adherents of General Yen Hsi-shan, the 'model governor' of Shansi. . . ."