International: Over the Hump

John Hall Paxton, U.S. consul general at Tihwa, in China's far western Sinkiang Province, was eager to take his well-earned leave. Washington had granted permission, but there was still a question: How to get out of Tihwa? The Chinese Communist armies were pressing close. Chinese air service to Canton had been cut, and U.S. planes were barred from the province by a Sino-Russian treaty. Old China Hand Paxton, who had come to the Orient first with his missionary parents at the age of two, called his staff together for a conference. They decided to...