To the Editor of the "NoRrH-CmmwA Daily NEWS"
Sm—The great tragedy of China is ihe fact that her people as well as people abroad have been flooded, for the last twenty years—not to mention those before—by a sea of lies, and blinded by a smoke-screen of absurdities which prevent them, and a great many foreigners as well, from realizing the truth about this unfortunate country and its people.
The other tragedy is that, because of a ridiculous idea of "face." the Chinese, even the most intelligent, will never admit any deficiency or mistake on their part or on the part of their leaders. Just as "the King can do no wrong" so, in their opinion, every son of Han is as infallible as the Pope, and as much above criticism as the wife of Caesar.
The test of true democracies is that people living under such a regime have the absolute right of judging iheir leaders and perfect freedom of speech or of expressing their opinions in the press, even in the most scathing terms, regarding misrule or abuses of justice which may be committed in their country.
With the exception of Lin Vu-tang and Dr. Hu Shih who have timidly criticized some of the most glaring mistakes made during the Jast decades in China, it is impossible to find any trace of fair judgment or of an impartial expose of historical facts. without the latter being disported by our Chinese friends, in the most regrettable manner.
Without referring to many instances in point such as the yarn about the called "unequal treaties." the Foreign Concessions. dealings in narcotics ete, etc, I shall quote only two examples in support of AwzI-HuMBUC.
Let it be said, before proceeding, that notwithstanding the protests and objections of some of your correspondents, the great majority of impartial observers and the true friends of China, among whom the undersigned. claims to be. agree entirely with the contentions of ANTI-HUMBUG and of Jor Toc-ToQUE (an unfortunate nom de plume, by the way). There is an old saying that: "Although one may bluff somebody every day or everybody one day, one cannot bluff everybody every day." This is true in China as elsewhere, and the childish arguments brought forward in support of the deplorable thoughts. deeds and policies which have unfortunately obtained im this country for many years, are not only absurd, io put it mildly, but entirely contrary io historical facts.
Regarding the Nanking outrages of March 1927, the allegation that such outrages were committed by adversaries or opponents of General Chiang
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.