Noble End of Chang Ching-hui

Chang Ching-hui was an ambitious man who lived by the sword. Born in Manchuria, he rose to power among the Chinese, who distrust personal ambition and deprecate the sword. Worse, in the end, he betrayed China. But last week, according to Chungking reports, Chang Ching-hui redeemed himself: with a certain nobility, he ended his career.

Chang was trained to be a soldier. For years he fought under his kinsman, the overlord of Manchuria, Chang Tso-lin. Thereafter, in China's convulsive era of war lords, Chang Ching-hui traded his allegiance for whatever bowl of pottage smelled best at the time. In this respect he was only following the rule of most of the high-domed, mustachioed war lords of 1900-28.

He deserted Chang Tso-lin to join with Wu Pei-fu, war lord rival of Chang Tso-lin. He rejoined Chang Tso-lin and served as Minister of War at Peking. As control changed, he went back to Wu and served as Minister of Industry in Wu's Cabinet. Before the year was out he deserted Wu, made peace again with Chang Tso-lin and became governor of the Harbin district in Manchuria. He was there when Chiang Kai-shek marched into Nanking and consolidated his Nationalist Government. Most of the other war lords joined Chiang then. But not Chang. He sulked in Manchuria and tried a new bargain--this time with the Japanese. For that he earned the premiership of Manchukuo.

But it was the most unsavory pottage of all, as Chang soon found. For ten years he was a puppet in a conquered land. It was a mess he could not spit out, a mess from which he could not flee. The people of Free China would never again trust Chang. There was only one way out. Finally he took it.

First Chang Ching-hui, 69, one of the last of the war lords, considerately poisoned the members of his family to save them from the vengeance of the Japanese. Next he shot his Japanese "adviser" and five officials of the Manchukuoan Government. Then he committed honorable suicide.

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