[11] See above, p. [13]. The last term is literally Executive Area (or District) of North Shan (Shensi). In the text, Frontier Area is used throughout as the simplest English equivalent.
[12] Chin Chi-yin, 'Pien-ch'ü' ti Ming-ch'êng' (The Name "Frontier Area"), in So-wei "Pien-ch'ü," cited above, p. 3-6.
[13] Ts'ui Yün-ch'ang, Shan-pei Lun Kuo-hua (A Brief Sketch of Northern Shensi), Kweilin, 1939, p. 4-5. This author concludes that Communist rule worsened the economic status of the area. "Then there occurred the campaigns for 'the extermination of landlordism' and for 'division of the lands.' The result of such proletarian disturbances was an astonishing decrease of population, caused by massacre and emigration, and the devastation of much land." (p. 6.)
[14] See the works cited above, p. [20], n. 16. It is possible to find a contradictory interpretation in Chinese sources for almost every point cited by Western visitors as meritorious. Since the Nationalists are not interested in promoting the international reputation of the Frontier Area, and at the same time are unable to launch any counter-propaganda (for fear of alienating Leftist sentiment in the West, because it would give the Japanese a propaganda advantage, and would disturb the appearance of the United Front), very little criticism—sound or otherwise—of the Chinese Communist area has appeared in the West. Even in a case such as the issuance of paper money, universally regarded as a clever move by the Communists and guerrillas, Chinese writers have charged that the issuance is fiat currency imposed by Communist force (e.g., Wang Ssü-ch'êng, Ju-tz'ŭ Pien-ch'ü [So this is the Frontier Area!] Chungking, 1938, p. 38 ff.) Within China, Communism is just as open to interpretation as the Soviets are in the Western world. Western data now available seems to cover only one side of the case, which is doubtless well-founded; but there must be another. There always is.
[15] Since the author has neither extensive acquaintance with Chinese Communists, nor has visited Yenan, he offers these conclusions more tentatively than he would others, concerning the Kuomintang.
[16] Professor George Taylor's The Struggle for North China presents a full and clear picture of the Border Region and the Peiping regime in startlingly apposite juxtaposition. He concludes by pointing out the significant paradox that the Japanese established a reactionary regime designed to keep China agrarian, backward, and exploitable, but that they had not managed to extend their affiliate beyond the cities. The country, which they had hoped to capture, escaped them through the political resurgence of the Border Region. P. C. Nyi, article cited above, p. [16], n. 10, presents an outline of the regime which supplements the first-hand materials Professor Taylor appends to his work. Major E. F. Carlson's works, which describe this, are Twin Stars of China and The Chinese Army, both cited above; the latter, a valuable contribution to the Inquiry Series of the Institute of Pacific Relations, includes Wang Yu-chuan, "The Organization of a Typical Guerrilla Area in South Shantung" (p. 84-130), a brilliant survey which reveals, sometimes unwittingly, the values and dangers of a Communist-Nationalist-popular union. Mr. Hanson's work is "Humane Endeavour," cited above; as a personal account, it is the most engrossing of the group.
[17] P. C. Nyi, article cited in The Chinese Year Book 1938-39, p. 255. Reading between the lines will illustrate much of the Chungking attitude.
[18] On the New Fourth Army, see Epstein, I., The People's War, cited above, p. 260 ff. Agnes Smedley, the well-known pro-Communist writer, has lived among the New Fourth recently. Another foreign visitor has been Jack Belton, of the Shanghai Evening Post. Publicity for the New Fourth Army, reduced to an absolute minimum by Chungking, is handled by an independent agency, the New China Information Committee (not to be confused with the semi-official China Information Committee) in Hong Kong. The China Defense League, in which the moving spirit is Mme. Sun Yat-sen, also in Hong Kong, acts as an agency for receiving gifts, etc., for the Army.