Puppet & Visitors

One day last week Emperor Kang Teh of Manchukuo felt big. Next day he felt small. Newswoman Jane Grant made the Puppet Emperor feel big by interviewing him, with utmost reverence, for the New York Times. She backed out of His Majesty's presence and rushed off to cable: "The Emperor's face is studious and interesting and very expressive. At mention of any subject outside routine, his face lighted, his features were suddenly alive and his eyes were seen to be glowing with interest even behind his darkened glasses." Next evening the hollow-eyed Manchu puppet who lives with a small Manchu Court at Hsinking, completely surrounded by Japanese soldiers, was rushed from his palace between lines of Japanese guards to the railway station. The station was full of Japanese, with scarcely a native Manchukuan to be seen. Far down the track a whistle shrieked. The Japanese crowd went wild. Puffing great clouds of smoke, a train of the Japanese South Manchuria Railway drew in, bearing Japan's popular, mountain-climbing Prince Chichibu, eldest brother of the Son of Heaven.

Stepping jauntily from his private car, Chichibu snapped a salute at the Puppet Emperor, then drew off his gloves and shook hands with Kang Teh. Japanese field guns began a long, long 101-gun salute for Prince Chichibu. When it was over he stepped into a Japanese limousine and whizzed off, leaving Emperor Kang Teh standing at the station. This, for a proper sovereign, would be the ultimate indignity, but the Puppet Emperor did not seem to mind. While the Japanese crowd rushed off to cheer Chichibu at the Japanese Embassy, the Emperor rode back to his palace. Hospitality to Chichibu included dinners and a military review during which both may have conversed in English, the only language they have in common.

Newswoman Jane Grant was not permitted to speak English with Japan's Puppet, had to talk to him through an interpreter who "controls" what he says. But Emperor Kang Teh did manage to press directly upon her some of his special cigarets, emblazoned with the "Imperial Orchid" of Manchukuo.

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