wont 4 Conntsronoenr Gen. Ken Sugiyama, Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese forces in North China, recently gave a reception 10 the foreign correspondents in Peiping. The Press turn= ed out in full foree—indeed I never realized that it was so strong—the most likely and unlikely putting in an appearance, several of whom I then saw for the first time, Nor is this so very strange, as these receptions to the Press. are red-letter days, for us; at: them we are the star part of the show, or fat Toast are made to think we are. It is true that on these occasions we do not quite aspire to such Olympian heights, as to be fable to toll Japanese ministers or admirals how they ought to conduct their' policy. We in the North are more modest, and quite content to be cine-photoed, ' exchanging ight badinage with the Commander-in-Chief of Japan's mighty armies or discussing the relative merits of whisky and saki with much-beribboned Chiefs. of Staff. These cine-pictures, 1 understand, are then flown lover to Tokyo by special plane and exhibited the same evening in the cinema halls in Japan. Such is the eagerness of the Japanese public (o sec our pictures, and so queer the taste of cinema fans all the world over. rae This must be about the tenth show of its kind that T have attended since the Japan= ese occupied Peiping. As they all run remarkably tq type, with the usual flood of harmless oratory, and as this particular one was in no way' different from the others, did not at first think of writing about li at all, But on second thoughts it struck me that the less fortunate might like to know what such mass receptions are like. T will, therefore, attempt a very rough description, dwelling chiefly on the reception Itself rather than' on the words of wisdom uttered by the gallant general hose receptions are invariably held in the former residence of some Chinese gener= al, no doubt for the quite simple reason that the Japanese find these well-appointed Palaces suitable residences for themselves, rather than because they really desire to impress on us the vast difference between the former and the present occupants. Gen. Sugiyama's reception took place in a palace next to the old War Office, where in tormen days I attended receptions of Gen. Sung Che-kuan and other Chinese military potentates.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.