Mr, Soong had their opportunity of discussing the situation with General Chang Hsueh-liang, they discovered that he strongly repudiated any pernal motives. He was taking the same line, so he was believed to have declared, "as he had taken in 1930 when he had thrown the weight of his troops on the side of the Central Government but had refused to allow them to fight against the then' Northern Armies, He frankly' admitted that he had taken a course of action which he could not defend, in order to bring to the Generalissimo's notice the facts of the situation in Shensi as he knew them, Saddened by the waste of Chinese money, Chinese lives and Chinese property in civil wars, he and those with him refused (o regard the perpetual pursuit of "so-called bandits"—who were "still Chinese despite their views"—when one-sixth of China had been allowed to fall into foreign hands. They felt that the campaign in Suiyuan demanded the full co-opera tion and backing of the Central Government if this progressive erosion of Chinese soil was to be checked. They alluded "bitterly to the fact that the first sight vouchsafed to Shensi of the aeroplanes enthusiastically subscribed for by the people of China was in the guise of messengers of death sent against Chinese. Th world. they felt, would be amazed at, the sight of Chinese fighting Chinese when the. danger of foreign ageres-slon was s0 real. General Chang Hsueh-liang was ready to accept the leadership of General Chiang Kaishek whose powers should not be
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.