the first Xibei San Ma AAR I've seen and it is really going good! so subscribing!
Welcome, and thanks! I hope the slow pacing doesn't put anybody off, but it will obviously get more exciting once wars start.
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Welcome, and thanks! I hope the slow pacing doesn't put anybody off, but it will obviously get more exciting once wars start.
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5 April: Word came over the wire that Bruno Hauptmann was executed today via the electric chair. He had been the only one apprehended and convicted for participating in the kidnapping of Colonel Charles Lindbergh’s 18-month old son. The authorities tracked him down after he was caught using a gold certificate $10 note at a bank. When the ransom was paid, police used gold certificates for it since President Roosevelt had authorized their recall by May 1, 1933. This meant that the kidnappers would be forced to use the money quickly or not at all. Although he claimed that a business associate who had since returned home to Germany and passed away in `34 had left the money with him, the jury convicted based on the dough and other evidence found at his home.
[size=-2]Poster from the search for the Lindberghs’ son[/size]
15 April: Caught a newsreel today where Mussolini gave a speech directed at the American people. Crosetti made Konrad show it a bunch of times even though most of the crowd lost interest after the first viewing. Paddy didn’t even want to stick around for the second show even though he and Crosetti usually drink together late into the night. Crosetti is typically pretty patient when Paddy goes off on this or that mistreatment of the Irish at the hands of the English, so you might expect him to reciprocate once in a while.
I wasn’t overly impressed with the speech, myself, but I can imagine it played well in some American circles if I can judge anything right from Crosetti’s reactions. I know that isolationist sentiments are gaining some momentum back in the States. Reflecting back on things now that Hauptmann has put Colonel Lindbergh back in the news, I wonder if he wouldn’t be quite as outspoken in his political views if he hadn’t gone through the trauma of the loss of his son. Nothing happens in a vacuum, after all, and everything touches everything else, no matter how indirectly.
23 April: Frank was killed last night. The events are pretty confused and I don’t think anyone is ever going to know the real story, but it seems like some kind of shenanigans were going on. As I understand it, Frank was out on the road to Ulaanbaatar when some gunplay took place apparently aimed at a group of travelers heading back to Golmud. Nobody was hurt, and some border guards rushed up to investigate. They were told that Mongolian bandits had attacked the group, but at this stage, nobody had been harmed. However, Mongolian troops arrived and in the confusion caused by their arrival, someone fired a shot and a minor skirmish broke out in which Frank was hit. Luckily only a few people were killed before cooler heads prevailed. The Mongolians claimed there never were any bandits, so take that for what it’s worth. People around town are pretty inflamed and are calling for war, but the Mas don’t seem to be taking any steps whatsoever to fight one aside from trying to get the economy focused on making weapons and other military equipment. If any kind of hostilities broke out, there wouldn’t be any troops within a hundred kilometers that could come and cover Golmud before a potential enemy arrived. If they suspect war the Mas must either be counting on their unfinished earthworks or the poor roads to guard their capital.
I’ve already been by to see Frank’s wife Khultulun today, and she says she’ll be heading back to Ulaanbaatar as soon as she can. I was surprised to find out she had received a personal visit from Ma Hongbin and given an extraordinarily large remuneration over what happened, so she won’t be as bad off as I feared when she gets home. Before I left, I promised her I’d wire Frank’s family back in San Francisco to let them know what happened.
24 April: Passed my birthday quietly in my room. I didn’t feel like heading out to celebrate at The Americaine since I am still a bit moody after yesterday’s events. The hotel concierge offered to bring me some poutine of all things, but I politely declined. I never got into eating it anyway.
5 May: Frank had his funeral today, paid for by Ma Hongbin according to Khultulun. This came as a big surprise to me since I had no idea Frank had been so well-connected. In fact, I can’t recall him ever discussing any friends in town at all, and nobody else at The Americaine can either. The procession went right through the main road in town and then out to a graveyard where Frank was buried. I had wondered if maybe the body shouldn’t have been sent back to his parents in the States instead, but it’s none of my business really. Khultulun left Golmud right after the ceremony, and I wished her well.
[size=-2]The funeral procession for Frank Cho[/size]
[size=-2]The burial[/size]
30 May: My hotel was raided last night. For the last fortnight or so broadsides have been going up all over town telling people to stop supporting the Republic of China and to throw their lot back in with Puyi over in Manchuria. Ma Hongbin, whose portfolio apparently handles internal as well as external security, sent thugs around to every hotel in town since they suspected some sort of foreign involvement. When they came into my room it actually counted against me that I was fluent in Mandarin, since they suspected me of being a spy after seeing all my camera equipment. Several of my lenses were smashed and worse might have happened if they hadn’t found the real culprit on a different floor. The idiot had a mimeograph machine sitting right out in his room. Both he and it were promptly hauled off and I doubt I’ll see either one again. I’ll have to wire Henry to see if he can get some replacement lenses sent out here. Ma Hongbin’s crackdown feels a bit heavy-handed, but there have been a lot of grumblings around town thanks to the broadsides so I expect the Mas want any dissent clamped down as fast as possible. Some people may be longing for `auld lang syne` with the Qing, but they forget that those days weren’t so hot. Anyway, I have a long night of rearranging my room ahead of me as I don’t expect the hotel staff to be showing their faces until the morning.
2 June: Not much happening at The Americaine tonight. Today is Eid Milad ul-Nabi, the day marking the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday. Most people out here are honoring it by fasting and contemplating selections from the Koran, meaning they’re at home. I’ve been trying to convince Konrad he needs to start serving things like lemonade if he wants to enlarge his customer base, since the really observant Moslems are all teetotalers. These discussions seldom go well since it’s hard to get him to understand why they won’t just drink a beer like `normal` folk. I think I’ve already noted that he isn’t very interested in the local culture even though he’s been in China for almost 20 years. Since a lot of the Moslems will still come in to pay to see a newsreel or other film, Konrad doesn’t grumble too much if they only ask him for water. I’ve got a couple of ideas on how I might be able to help him out with this, but I’ll have to check with Henry to see how feasible they are.
7 June: Two Militia divisions arrived in town. All good news for Konrad as these gents are more than happy to have a drink. I talked to a few of them and it seems they started off in camps near the areas held by the Communists around Yan`an and have been on the road to Golmud since January, walking the whole way. So about five months to get from Yan`an to Golmud... I don’t think that says much for the roads around here. Some wooden barracks have been set up for them at the edge of town and I watched a few of them do practice with their field guns, I think they are going to be here for a while. I’m not sure what threats Ma Buqing is accounting for, but Golmud is near the border with Tibet and there has been some minor trouble with Tibet in the past. This would seem like the most likely axis of attack if the area were to be invaded, but the local news broadcasts are still full of grim warnings about Mongolia.
[size=-2]Ma Buqing’s Militia doing gunnery exercises[/size]
30 June: Factory workers went on strike down in Guilin, which is one of the major cities down in Canton. This makes the second major rash of strikes in the last few weeks, which started with ones hitting various cities in Yunnan back on the 9th or 10th if I remember rightly. None of this is too surprising really. When you have a bunch of generalissimos dividing the country between them, rapacity is a general side effect. The workingmen aren’t too happy watching their hard efforts to build up the country getting siphoned off. All of this is serving Mao pretty well over in Yan`an. The wireless programs coming out of there are all full of how the generalissimos are exploiting the lower classes and how Communism offers the only way out to a better future. I haven’t seen too many problems here myself in Golmud, but Peter tells me that the Mas aren’t doing much better than their peers as far as corruption goes. He’s aware of several contracts for anti-tank guns, anti-air field pieces, and mountaineering equipment that Ma Buqing ordered for the army, but none of it is being produced. So what happened after the money was spent? The earthworks around the city are still a work in progress, and it is pretty clear only a minimal effort is being maintained on the project. Nobody expects the works to be finished any time soon, which is fine as nobody thinks them to be needed for anything. Or so we assume.
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1936, Spring - Departures
[/size]5 April: Word came over the wire that Bruno Hauptmann was executed today via the electric chair. He had been the only one apprehended and convicted for participating in the kidnapping of Colonel Charles Lindbergh’s 18-month old son. The authorities tracked him down after he was caught using a gold certificate $10 note at a bank. When the ransom was paid, police used gold certificates for it since President Roosevelt had authorized their recall by May 1, 1933. This meant that the kidnappers would be forced to use the money quickly or not at all. Although he claimed that a business associate who had since returned home to Germany and passed away in `34 had left the money with him, the jury convicted based on the dough and other evidence found at his home.
[size=-2]Poster from the search for the Lindberghs’ son[/size]
15 April: Caught a newsreel today where Mussolini gave a speech directed at the American people. Crosetti made Konrad show it a bunch of times even though most of the crowd lost interest after the first viewing. Paddy didn’t even want to stick around for the second show even though he and Crosetti usually drink together late into the night. Crosetti is typically pretty patient when Paddy goes off on this or that mistreatment of the Irish at the hands of the English, so you might expect him to reciprocate once in a while.
[video=youtube;tTXhez2mNmM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTXhez2mNmM[/video]
I wasn’t overly impressed with the speech, myself, but I can imagine it played well in some American circles if I can judge anything right from Crosetti’s reactions. I know that isolationist sentiments are gaining some momentum back in the States. Reflecting back on things now that Hauptmann has put Colonel Lindbergh back in the news, I wonder if he wouldn’t be quite as outspoken in his political views if he hadn’t gone through the trauma of the loss of his son. Nothing happens in a vacuum, after all, and everything touches everything else, no matter how indirectly.
23 April: Frank was killed last night. The events are pretty confused and I don’t think anyone is ever going to know the real story, but it seems like some kind of shenanigans were going on. As I understand it, Frank was out on the road to Ulaanbaatar when some gunplay took place apparently aimed at a group of travelers heading back to Golmud. Nobody was hurt, and some border guards rushed up to investigate. They were told that Mongolian bandits had attacked the group, but at this stage, nobody had been harmed. However, Mongolian troops arrived and in the confusion caused by their arrival, someone fired a shot and a minor skirmish broke out in which Frank was hit. Luckily only a few people were killed before cooler heads prevailed. The Mongolians claimed there never were any bandits, so take that for what it’s worth. People around town are pretty inflamed and are calling for war, but the Mas don’t seem to be taking any steps whatsoever to fight one aside from trying to get the economy focused on making weapons and other military equipment. If any kind of hostilities broke out, there wouldn’t be any troops within a hundred kilometers that could come and cover Golmud before a potential enemy arrived. If they suspect war the Mas must either be counting on their unfinished earthworks or the poor roads to guard their capital.
I’ve already been by to see Frank’s wife Khultulun today, and she says she’ll be heading back to Ulaanbaatar as soon as she can. I was surprised to find out she had received a personal visit from Ma Hongbin and given an extraordinarily large remuneration over what happened, so she won’t be as bad off as I feared when she gets home. Before I left, I promised her I’d wire Frank’s family back in San Francisco to let them know what happened.
24 April: Passed my birthday quietly in my room. I didn’t feel like heading out to celebrate at The Americaine since I am still a bit moody after yesterday’s events. The hotel concierge offered to bring me some poutine of all things, but I politely declined. I never got into eating it anyway.
5 May: Frank had his funeral today, paid for by Ma Hongbin according to Khultulun. This came as a big surprise to me since I had no idea Frank had been so well-connected. In fact, I can’t recall him ever discussing any friends in town at all, and nobody else at The Americaine can either. The procession went right through the main road in town and then out to a graveyard where Frank was buried. I had wondered if maybe the body shouldn’t have been sent back to his parents in the States instead, but it’s none of my business really. Khultulun left Golmud right after the ceremony, and I wished her well.
[size=-2]The funeral procession for Frank Cho[/size]
[size=-2]The burial[/size]
30 May: My hotel was raided last night. For the last fortnight or so broadsides have been going up all over town telling people to stop supporting the Republic of China and to throw their lot back in with Puyi over in Manchuria. Ma Hongbin, whose portfolio apparently handles internal as well as external security, sent thugs around to every hotel in town since they suspected some sort of foreign involvement. When they came into my room it actually counted against me that I was fluent in Mandarin, since they suspected me of being a spy after seeing all my camera equipment. Several of my lenses were smashed and worse might have happened if they hadn’t found the real culprit on a different floor. The idiot had a mimeograph machine sitting right out in his room. Both he and it were promptly hauled off and I doubt I’ll see either one again. I’ll have to wire Henry to see if he can get some replacement lenses sent out here. Ma Hongbin’s crackdown feels a bit heavy-handed, but there have been a lot of grumblings around town thanks to the broadsides so I expect the Mas want any dissent clamped down as fast as possible. Some people may be longing for `auld lang syne` with the Qing, but they forget that those days weren’t so hot. Anyway, I have a long night of rearranging my room ahead of me as I don’t expect the hotel staff to be showing their faces until the morning.
2 June: Not much happening at The Americaine tonight. Today is Eid Milad ul-Nabi, the day marking the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday. Most people out here are honoring it by fasting and contemplating selections from the Koran, meaning they’re at home. I’ve been trying to convince Konrad he needs to start serving things like lemonade if he wants to enlarge his customer base, since the really observant Moslems are all teetotalers. These discussions seldom go well since it’s hard to get him to understand why they won’t just drink a beer like `normal` folk. I think I’ve already noted that he isn’t very interested in the local culture even though he’s been in China for almost 20 years. Since a lot of the Moslems will still come in to pay to see a newsreel or other film, Konrad doesn’t grumble too much if they only ask him for water. I’ve got a couple of ideas on how I might be able to help him out with this, but I’ll have to check with Henry to see how feasible they are.
7 June: Two Militia divisions arrived in town. All good news for Konrad as these gents are more than happy to have a drink. I talked to a few of them and it seems they started off in camps near the areas held by the Communists around Yan`an and have been on the road to Golmud since January, walking the whole way. So about five months to get from Yan`an to Golmud... I don’t think that says much for the roads around here. Some wooden barracks have been set up for them at the edge of town and I watched a few of them do practice with their field guns, I think they are going to be here for a while. I’m not sure what threats Ma Buqing is accounting for, but Golmud is near the border with Tibet and there has been some minor trouble with Tibet in the past. This would seem like the most likely axis of attack if the area were to be invaded, but the local news broadcasts are still full of grim warnings about Mongolia.
[size=-2]Ma Buqing’s Militia doing gunnery exercises[/size]
30 June: Factory workers went on strike down in Guilin, which is one of the major cities down in Canton. This makes the second major rash of strikes in the last few weeks, which started with ones hitting various cities in Yunnan back on the 9th or 10th if I remember rightly. None of this is too surprising really. When you have a bunch of generalissimos dividing the country between them, rapacity is a general side effect. The workingmen aren’t too happy watching their hard efforts to build up the country getting siphoned off. All of this is serving Mao pretty well over in Yan`an. The wireless programs coming out of there are all full of how the generalissimos are exploiting the lower classes and how Communism offers the only way out to a better future. I haven’t seen too many problems here myself in Golmud, but Peter tells me that the Mas aren’t doing much better than their peers as far as corruption goes. He’s aware of several contracts for anti-tank guns, anti-air field pieces, and mountaineering equipment that Ma Buqing ordered for the army, but none of it is being produced. So what happened after the money was spent? The earthworks around the city are still a work in progress, and it is pretty clear only a minimal effort is being maintained on the project. Nobody expects the works to be finished any time soon, which is fine as nobody thinks them to be needed for anything. Or so we assume.
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Another amazing update, and I wanted to let you know that you've been nominated for the Weekly AAR showcase! Congratulations!
Good read eqqman, the suspense is building nicely and I am learning a lot. Its the first narrative AAR I have ever read.
What's up ahead? A Chinese Caliphate?
China unified under Muslim rule would be very interesting.
China unified under Muslim rule would be very interesting.
Wow, thanks!
Welcome, and thanks! If you get hooked on this style, there are plenty of other great reads out there by others, some of which are long enough to spend a day or to just going through them beginning to end.
Welcome! We'll see what happens. My test games have only run through `42 - `43, so even I can't say for sure how things will play out in the end.
Very informative. I never knew that pre-war western China was this interesting.
will be following
will be following
Welcome, and thanks!
I think sometimes we forget that history happened all over. That's one of the great appeals of the EU line for me, is that some of these other less-well known regions can have their chance at coming to prominence. Which makes it all the more frustrating that for HOI Paradox decided to make the minors so difficult to play.
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9 July: Fabulous news over the wire from Henry today to make you blow your wig. He’s finally come around to my way of thinking, although he has chosen to do so in a convoluted way. He still wants to keep Time magazine the way it is, so the plan is to start a new magazine dedicated to photojournalism from scratch. Henry says that if we want to provide an illustrated guide to life around the world, then the best name for such a magazine *would* be `Life`. However, there already is a publication using that name. I’m somewhat aware of it, and it was started in the last quarter of the previous century if I remember correctly[size=-2][1][/size]. My mother read it from time to time. It features lightweight entertainment but has lost a lot of market share to The New Yorker and Esquire. Henry tells me he plans to buy them out solely to acquire rights to the name, and sell off all their assets since he has no interest in anything they are currently doing. As they can’t have been making too much money recently, I am sure he’ll find the price is right. The hope is that the new version of Life can relaunch sometime this year. I’ve already wired back to let him know I have a few articles I can have prepared on short notice along with the matching pictures, but getting my negatives mailed back to the States might be an issue since the roads around here are all wet, and I don’t mean it’s been raining.
[size=-2]An issue of the original Life magazine from 1911[/size]
23 July: Heard from Peter that Ma Buqing has commissioned several Infantry brigades to be equipped by Chiang, but as usual there is no indication whatever around town of anything actually being produced. If this is a sign of outright corruption by either Buqing or Chiang, it is hard to say. As the propaganda against Mongolia is still pretty relentless, you might expect that we would see some more soldiers soon, but so far we just have the two Militia divisions in the area.
It is a plus for Konrad having these men around, however, and his business has increased to the point where he has hired some new staff, including some ladies to act as waitresses. He’s also talked a bit about getting another bartender so he can spend his time schmoozing with the customers and just acting as a host, but I reminded him that since he doesn’t even speak Chinese it would be fairly fruitless for him to do so. He looked thoughtful for a moment and then said `Ach, so... you macht China for me, ja?` It took me a while to figure out he wanted me to teach him Chinese. I don’t know if he is truly serious about that or not, given his general ambivalence to China in general, but we’ll see.
10 August: Britain’s King George V has passed away. I think this will come as a major blow to the British people, as they have very strong feelings for the monarch that helped see them through the Great War. And also, the heir apparent is in a bit of a scandal. Not only is he seeing an American `lady` (to be charitable), she’s still married! And I seem to remember a different scandal back in ’35 that she was caught with yet another man while allegedly serving as the crown prince’s mistress. I have no idea what their Parliament will make of all this, but I would be willing to bet they won’t stand for having that woman as queen. These are the same people that won’t even let their monarch choose their own religion, after all.
[size=-2]Edward, Prince of Wales, and his woman[/size]
17 August: Just finished listening to the closing ceremonies of the 11th Olympics at The Americaine. Canada had a decent showing considering that the national sports budget didn’t have the funds to field a team for every event. This ended up causing a bit of an embarrassment for the Canadian Olympic Committee. The COC decided not to field any entrants in the canoeing events, over the strenuous objections of the team captain Frank Amyot. Undaunted, however, Amyot raised the money on his own to get the team to Berlin. He then went on to win the gold medal in the one-man 1,000m that was our only gold in the Games this year. The other medals came in silver for basketball (new this year), men’s 400m hurdles, two-man 1,000m canoeing, and bronzes for the women’s 4x100m relay, women’s 80m hurdles, men’s 800m, and welterweight wrestling. The basketball match was quite interesting, since it was done outdoors in the rain. The mud on the court prevented the players from dribbling the ball as they normally would, and even the spectators were put out, as there were no seats for them! Of course the States took the gold, as you might expect from the country that invented the sport.
[size=-2]The Olympic Stadium in Berlin[/size]
Konrad has been on cloud nine this past week. Germany led the competition with a total of 88 medals, leading in both the total number and the number of gold medals with 33, if we counted it right[size=-2][2][/size]. Of particular interest to him was the Heavyweight boxing championship between the German Herbert Runge and Guillermo Lovell of Argentina. I did stay to listen to the fight on the wireless and it seemed to satisfy the crowd, but since I don’t follow the sport I can’t comment on the quality of the match. Crosetti was pretty upset that his man Secondo de Marchi didn’t even get to the semi-finals, so he spent his time trying to convince Konrad that Joe Louis could take Runge, but Konrad smugly pointed out that if Louis couldn’t handle Max Schmeling, he couldn’t handle Runge either. Paddy took all this in stride since Ireland fielded no teams in these Games, as disagreements between athletic associations in Ulster and the Irish Free State prevented it.
The Games weren’t without their little controversies. I seem to recall that back in 1931 there were a few eyebrows raised when the voting was done on which city would host the 1936 Summer Games. Even though well over half a dozen places applied, only Berlin and Barcelona received any votes in the first and only round of balloting. The Spanish were so upset at losing that they decided to host their own parallel event to be called the People’s Olympiad. Things seemed to be all set for this but it was cancelled at the last minute due to increasing unrest in Spain. Some right-wing generals there are getting very unhappy with the government of the Second Spanish Republic. As anyone in China could tell you, it never bodes well when generals become unhappy. There was also a minor bru-ha-ha with people claiming that the French and Canadian teams were giving the German Chancellor the salute in use by his National Socialist party, but the regular Roman salute already in use at the Olympics is so similar the two are easily confused.
Racism seems to be coming more and more of the national ideology in Germany, and the Games have been somewhat promoted as a chance of the white races to show their alleged superiority. This almost made countries like the United States boycott the games, but after much discussion it was decided to keep their sports from being influenced by national politics. I don’t quite follow how the German ideas have been developed, since they seem to be based on notions of Aryan superiority. But the Aryans, as far as I know, came from Persia and are mainly renowned for their invasions and settlement of northern India. How they’ve been traced to Central Europe is beyond me. Because of these supremacy issues, the decision by the Americans to participate in the Games proved to be a wise move thanks to Jesse Owens, a Negro. Owens is a renowned track star who went on to win four gold medals at the Games- so much for German superiority, although they did win the most medals overall, to give them their due. There is some debate that the German Chancellor snubbed him for being a Negro athlete, but that is inaccurate. Peter keeps up with the sports world and told me that the Olympic rules state that every winning athlete must either be honored or none at all, so the Chancellor went with ‘none’. In fact Owens received no less courtesy than other winners.
A match I was very interested in hearing was the German field hockey team losing the gold in an 8 - 1 blowout to India, which also must have been a bad blow to national pride, but maybe the Germans feel kinship to them as some Indians actually are Aryans. I won’t pretend to understand all the rationales for who is and isn’t superior and I certainly am not going to ask Konrad about it. India had gone the whole tournament without allowing a single goal, so the fact that Germany scored on them in their last game might be a salve of sorts to German feelings that may have them claiming a moral victory.
This has been a great week as the Games have fostered a lot of camaraderie at The Americaine amongst the expats, and even some of the locals got involved, although no teams were fielded by any part of China. Most of them were cheering for Great Britain or the States; you can imagine they weren’t rooting for Japan.
18 September: The new King Edward VIII in Britain has abdicated, presumably so he can marry his woman in peace. I think this is going to come as a relief to many Britons. From what I heard he had already left many of his duties (such as they are) to his brother Albert who is to assume the throne as George VI. This has unexpectedly caused a to-do in Ireland. No sooner was the abdication announced than the Irish Free State passed Acts that removed nearly all reference to the British monarchy from their Constitution. They seem ready to declare themselves a Republic and sever all ties to the Commonwealth. Will this cause a recurrence of the Troubles? Paddy is all for it, if it means that Ulster will be rejoined to the rest of the country. I don’t think Britain will risk a conflict though since they seem very anti-war at the moment.
[size=-2]The new King George VI[/size]
30 September: There’s been a huge public demonstration in the streets of Ottawa today promoting the peaceful resolution of disputes between nations. I think this is an outgrowth of the great divide that seems to be slowly gripping the world. Authoritarian regimes are taking hold across Europe, and Asia certainly has its fair share already, so naturally this is causing a bit of a rift between them and the more democratically aligned nations. Britain, and to a lesser extent, France, have been taking the lead in creating a bit of a united front to oppose the worst excesses of the various hard-line right-wing countries, but this opposition has been taking the form of words only for the moment. As the protests in Ottawa are showing, there is a strong sentiment in the Commonwealth that things should stay that way.
Both sides have been fervently courting the States, but President Roosevelt’s policy is to stand by the Monroe Doctrine and proclaim neutrality as far as events in the Old World go. This stance feels like a bit of a façade to me... the Americans still need to sell their goods if they want to finish climbing out of the Depression, and depending on how that plays out, one side or the other is likely to be put off. Since many of the regimes in Europe are now espousing principles antithetical to those the Americans have enshrined in their founding documents like the Constitution, is seems obvious they will end up siding with Britain sooner or later. If they pick later, then they are just depriving Britain of clout they will need to back up the strong words coming out of Whitehall.
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[size=-2]Editor’s Notes:
1. The original incarnation of LIFE magazine was founded in 1883
2. Germany won 89 medals total in the 1936 Summer Games. In some of the unpublished sections of the diaries, Theriaux miscounts the totals for other countries as well.[/size]
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1936, Summer - Fun and Games
[/size]9 July: Fabulous news over the wire from Henry today to make you blow your wig. He’s finally come around to my way of thinking, although he has chosen to do so in a convoluted way. He still wants to keep Time magazine the way it is, so the plan is to start a new magazine dedicated to photojournalism from scratch. Henry says that if we want to provide an illustrated guide to life around the world, then the best name for such a magazine *would* be `Life`. However, there already is a publication using that name. I’m somewhat aware of it, and it was started in the last quarter of the previous century if I remember correctly[size=-2][1][/size]. My mother read it from time to time. It features lightweight entertainment but has lost a lot of market share to The New Yorker and Esquire. Henry tells me he plans to buy them out solely to acquire rights to the name, and sell off all their assets since he has no interest in anything they are currently doing. As they can’t have been making too much money recently, I am sure he’ll find the price is right. The hope is that the new version of Life can relaunch sometime this year. I’ve already wired back to let him know I have a few articles I can have prepared on short notice along with the matching pictures, but getting my negatives mailed back to the States might be an issue since the roads around here are all wet, and I don’t mean it’s been raining.
[size=-2]An issue of the original Life magazine from 1911[/size]
23 July: Heard from Peter that Ma Buqing has commissioned several Infantry brigades to be equipped by Chiang, but as usual there is no indication whatever around town of anything actually being produced. If this is a sign of outright corruption by either Buqing or Chiang, it is hard to say. As the propaganda against Mongolia is still pretty relentless, you might expect that we would see some more soldiers soon, but so far we just have the two Militia divisions in the area.
It is a plus for Konrad having these men around, however, and his business has increased to the point where he has hired some new staff, including some ladies to act as waitresses. He’s also talked a bit about getting another bartender so he can spend his time schmoozing with the customers and just acting as a host, but I reminded him that since he doesn’t even speak Chinese it would be fairly fruitless for him to do so. He looked thoughtful for a moment and then said `Ach, so... you macht China for me, ja?` It took me a while to figure out he wanted me to teach him Chinese. I don’t know if he is truly serious about that or not, given his general ambivalence to China in general, but we’ll see.
10 August: Britain’s King George V has passed away. I think this will come as a major blow to the British people, as they have very strong feelings for the monarch that helped see them through the Great War. And also, the heir apparent is in a bit of a scandal. Not only is he seeing an American `lady` (to be charitable), she’s still married! And I seem to remember a different scandal back in ’35 that she was caught with yet another man while allegedly serving as the crown prince’s mistress. I have no idea what their Parliament will make of all this, but I would be willing to bet they won’t stand for having that woman as queen. These are the same people that won’t even let their monarch choose their own religion, after all.
[size=-2]Edward, Prince of Wales, and his woman[/size]
17 August: Just finished listening to the closing ceremonies of the 11th Olympics at The Americaine. Canada had a decent showing considering that the national sports budget didn’t have the funds to field a team for every event. This ended up causing a bit of an embarrassment for the Canadian Olympic Committee. The COC decided not to field any entrants in the canoeing events, over the strenuous objections of the team captain Frank Amyot. Undaunted, however, Amyot raised the money on his own to get the team to Berlin. He then went on to win the gold medal in the one-man 1,000m that was our only gold in the Games this year. The other medals came in silver for basketball (new this year), men’s 400m hurdles, two-man 1,000m canoeing, and bronzes for the women’s 4x100m relay, women’s 80m hurdles, men’s 800m, and welterweight wrestling. The basketball match was quite interesting, since it was done outdoors in the rain. The mud on the court prevented the players from dribbling the ball as they normally would, and even the spectators were put out, as there were no seats for them! Of course the States took the gold, as you might expect from the country that invented the sport.
[size=-2]The Olympic Stadium in Berlin[/size]
Konrad has been on cloud nine this past week. Germany led the competition with a total of 88 medals, leading in both the total number and the number of gold medals with 33, if we counted it right[size=-2][2][/size]. Of particular interest to him was the Heavyweight boxing championship between the German Herbert Runge and Guillermo Lovell of Argentina. I did stay to listen to the fight on the wireless and it seemed to satisfy the crowd, but since I don’t follow the sport I can’t comment on the quality of the match. Crosetti was pretty upset that his man Secondo de Marchi didn’t even get to the semi-finals, so he spent his time trying to convince Konrad that Joe Louis could take Runge, but Konrad smugly pointed out that if Louis couldn’t handle Max Schmeling, he couldn’t handle Runge either. Paddy took all this in stride since Ireland fielded no teams in these Games, as disagreements between athletic associations in Ulster and the Irish Free State prevented it.
The Games weren’t without their little controversies. I seem to recall that back in 1931 there were a few eyebrows raised when the voting was done on which city would host the 1936 Summer Games. Even though well over half a dozen places applied, only Berlin and Barcelona received any votes in the first and only round of balloting. The Spanish were so upset at losing that they decided to host their own parallel event to be called the People’s Olympiad. Things seemed to be all set for this but it was cancelled at the last minute due to increasing unrest in Spain. Some right-wing generals there are getting very unhappy with the government of the Second Spanish Republic. As anyone in China could tell you, it never bodes well when generals become unhappy. There was also a minor bru-ha-ha with people claiming that the French and Canadian teams were giving the German Chancellor the salute in use by his National Socialist party, but the regular Roman salute already in use at the Olympics is so similar the two are easily confused.
Racism seems to be coming more and more of the national ideology in Germany, and the Games have been somewhat promoted as a chance of the white races to show their alleged superiority. This almost made countries like the United States boycott the games, but after much discussion it was decided to keep their sports from being influenced by national politics. I don’t quite follow how the German ideas have been developed, since they seem to be based on notions of Aryan superiority. But the Aryans, as far as I know, came from Persia and are mainly renowned for their invasions and settlement of northern India. How they’ve been traced to Central Europe is beyond me. Because of these supremacy issues, the decision by the Americans to participate in the Games proved to be a wise move thanks to Jesse Owens, a Negro. Owens is a renowned track star who went on to win four gold medals at the Games- so much for German superiority, although they did win the most medals overall, to give them their due. There is some debate that the German Chancellor snubbed him for being a Negro athlete, but that is inaccurate. Peter keeps up with the sports world and told me that the Olympic rules state that every winning athlete must either be honored or none at all, so the Chancellor went with ‘none’. In fact Owens received no less courtesy than other winners.
A match I was very interested in hearing was the German field hockey team losing the gold in an 8 - 1 blowout to India, which also must have been a bad blow to national pride, but maybe the Germans feel kinship to them as some Indians actually are Aryans. I won’t pretend to understand all the rationales for who is and isn’t superior and I certainly am not going to ask Konrad about it. India had gone the whole tournament without allowing a single goal, so the fact that Germany scored on them in their last game might be a salve of sorts to German feelings that may have them claiming a moral victory.
[video=youtube;uKHmfiZH5aQ] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKHmfiZH5aQ[/video]
This has been a great week as the Games have fostered a lot of camaraderie at The Americaine amongst the expats, and even some of the locals got involved, although no teams were fielded by any part of China. Most of them were cheering for Great Britain or the States; you can imagine they weren’t rooting for Japan.
18 September: The new King Edward VIII in Britain has abdicated, presumably so he can marry his woman in peace. I think this is going to come as a relief to many Britons. From what I heard he had already left many of his duties (such as they are) to his brother Albert who is to assume the throne as George VI. This has unexpectedly caused a to-do in Ireland. No sooner was the abdication announced than the Irish Free State passed Acts that removed nearly all reference to the British monarchy from their Constitution. They seem ready to declare themselves a Republic and sever all ties to the Commonwealth. Will this cause a recurrence of the Troubles? Paddy is all for it, if it means that Ulster will be rejoined to the rest of the country. I don’t think Britain will risk a conflict though since they seem very anti-war at the moment.
[size=-2]The new King George VI[/size]
30 September: There’s been a huge public demonstration in the streets of Ottawa today promoting the peaceful resolution of disputes between nations. I think this is an outgrowth of the great divide that seems to be slowly gripping the world. Authoritarian regimes are taking hold across Europe, and Asia certainly has its fair share already, so naturally this is causing a bit of a rift between them and the more democratically aligned nations. Britain, and to a lesser extent, France, have been taking the lead in creating a bit of a united front to oppose the worst excesses of the various hard-line right-wing countries, but this opposition has been taking the form of words only for the moment. As the protests in Ottawa are showing, there is a strong sentiment in the Commonwealth that things should stay that way.
Both sides have been fervently courting the States, but President Roosevelt’s policy is to stand by the Monroe Doctrine and proclaim neutrality as far as events in the Old World go. This stance feels like a bit of a façade to me... the Americans still need to sell their goods if they want to finish climbing out of the Depression, and depending on how that plays out, one side or the other is likely to be put off. Since many of the regimes in Europe are now espousing principles antithetical to those the Americans have enshrined in their founding documents like the Constitution, is seems obvious they will end up siding with Britain sooner or later. If they pick later, then they are just depriving Britain of clout they will need to back up the strong words coming out of Whitehall.
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[size=-2]Editor’s Notes:
1. The original incarnation of LIFE magazine was founded in 1883
2. Germany won 89 medals total in the 1936 Summer Games. In some of the unpublished sections of the diaries, Theriaux miscounts the totals for other countries as well.[/size]
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Thanks! I had a bit of luck there. I had to piece together my own video footage to remove any NSDAP symbols and happened to find some clips later of incidents I had already decided to write about.
I'm liking to see the few years before WWII from the eyes of Jacques Theriaux
Thank you! I even have a little bit of action to report next time I update...
A different take than the usual for HOI3, but you're creating an interesting narrative with a real 'feel' for the place (I have of course no idea how authentic it is, but that doesn't even matter: what matters is that you are creating a consistent, believeable vibe for the place).
Welcome, and thanks! I've been doing plenty of research to try and make things as accurate as I can within the bounds of what I need to have conform to my game, so it sounds like it has been paying off! I was quite surprised to find a lot of things that just happened to work out in my favor- for example, Henry Luce being a Sinophile, LIFE magazine being reborn in 1936, etc. My opening picture even *is* a period pulp-processing plant on the Saguenay River, which I happened to find long after I had already decided my main character would be born there.
[size=+1]
[size=-2]The original issue of the new LIFE magazine, depicting Fort Peck Dam[/size]
3 October: Ma Buqing announced over the wireless today that the Ma Clique has launched a final war of extermination against the Communist Chinese led by Mao Tse-tung out of Yan`an. This move allegedly has the full support of Chiang Kai-shek down in Nanking. The only thing I find odd about this, however, is that none of the Ma generals have forces anywhere near Yan`an while Chiang has divisions piled up all along the border. I don’t know what Buqing’s plans are, but they look to involve not firing a shot. I suppose Sun Tzu would heartily approve.
[size=-2]Chiang was prepared for a full-out assault, but the Reds gave up immediately[/size]
6 October: Chiang’s troops marched into Yan`an today completely unopposed. From what I’ve heard, Mao Tse-tung was immediately turned over by the local Communist Party officials and executed by Chiang. Word on the street is that Chiang cut a deal with the Reds- he would stop persecuting them and give them the province they now hold to turn into a semi-autonomous worker’s paradise, and they give up Mao for crimes against the Republic of China. What specific crimes these might be, I can’t imagine, since the Reds haven’t been any worse than any of the other various factions around the countryside. There seems to have been a show trial that lasted an hour and ended with the sentencing and execution of Mao. So Chiang has finally completed his purge of the Communists that he started back in 1926, although he is allowing the Party to continue to exist. I don’t know how wise of a move that might be. Stalin is bound to be pretty upset that Chiang refused his help back in the 20s, and as long as there are Reds in China anywhere, they are a potential knife at the throat of whoever plans to rule the country.
[size=-2]The final photograph of Mao Tse-tung[/size]
This whole episode also indirectly caused a major fight over at the public house. I had asked Konrad to run the local announcements over the wireless so we could keep track of what was happening over in Yan`an. However, back in the States, they were running the final game of the 1936 World Series this same day. Crosetti insisted that we listen to the game, and most of the expats backed him up, but many of the locals were far more concerned with what was happening with Mao (obviously). Things were about to get pretty ugly but I told Konrad to play the game and I let the locals know I would be getting wires regarding any urgent events from my hotel. I then spent the day in eager anticipation of news. By the time word came in that Chiang had seized Yan`an and Mao, the game was over and the Yankee fans were celebrating the victory over the Giants. Having that plus the news I had collected kept people celebrating well into the night. I had actually been following the Series before Chiang became active. The second game that took place on October 2nd was particularly exciting. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning (of course), Hank Leiber hit a ball that would have been a home run, but newcomer Yankee fielder Joe DiMaggio ran off the field and up the clubhouse steps to get it. The story soon spread that he was congratulated by President Roosevelt for this catch, the President having attended the game. You can imagine Crosetti’s reactions when the announcer called this play over the wireless.
7 October: More shocks over the wireless, and this time not interrupted with a ball game. Ma Hongkui has announced that Tibet is officially considered to be a region in rebellion against the rightful government of China and that all necessary actions will be taken by the Ma Clique to assist that government in suppressing this rebellion (his statement is even more obfuscated in the original Mandarin). The Militia divisions guarding the city are now in a state of high alert and are constantly scanning the roads to the west.
Some of the other rhetoric spewed out by Hongkui highlights the fact that the lines that divide China today are partially ethnic as well as sectional. Off in the northeast, you have the Manchus who tossed out the Han Chinese’s Ming dynasty which in its turn had overthrown the Mongol’s Yuan dynasty. The Han Chinese are by far the most numerous group and have pride of place of sorts as being the ones from where Chinese civilization sprung up along the Yellow and Yangtze River valleys. Up north you have the Mongols, which are mainly a collection of different tribes, and then to the west here you have the Hui Chinese. The Hui Chinese are the descendants of traders along the old Silk Road who intermingled with the Han Chinese, and are primarily Moslems. In the far west we have the Tibetans and the mixture of various Turkic races such as the Uighurs that make Sinkiang their home.
Tibet was an independent kingdom long into antiquity but went into a serious decline in the 9th century. It was conquered during the general Mongol expansion in the 1200s, and when that Empire fell apart after the death of Genghis Khan it became nominally part of China under the Mongolian Yuan dynasty. The Mongols maintained limited control over the area (bad roads are a perennial problem as old as time) which became even more lax under the Ming. The Qing tightened things up a little bit but the region was still largely autonomous up through the opening of the 20th century.
The 13th Dalai Lama, who is the religious and political ruler of the country, spent the early years of the century being involved in power plays between Russia and Great Britain as those two nations competed for dominance in Central Asia. Naturally this didn’t endear him with the Qing, who sent troops to reassert Chinese authority in 1910. He fled to India but came back in 1913 after the Qing dynasty was overthrown in Sun Yat-sen’s Xinhai Revolution, and declared the outright independence of Tibet. Due to the ongoing troubles in China proper, he was able to maintain this independence without conflict up through 1932, when Chiang dispatched Ma Bufang and a sizeable army to take control for China once again. Ma Bufang was close to winning, but British pressure on Chiang compelled him to order Bufang to sign a treaty with the Tibetans that has left them nominally independent. But it would appear that the Mas are going to take advantage of the current wave of peace sentiments sweeping Great Britain and renounce the treaty. The 13th Dalai Lama died at the end `33, I wonder if the 14th Lama will prove to have the same acumen his predecessor did, but since he’s only a boy[size=-2][1][/size], we may never find out. He’ll probably need twice as much skill though, if he needs to make up for not having any British support against the Mas in this go-round.
[size=-2]The 13th Dalai Lama (center, seated) during his Indian exile[/size]
20 October: I received a surprise visit from Chiang Kai-shek today. He came to town to have a meeting with the Ma families and had heard (from Henry, I suppose) that I was here. He seemed to be a little disappointed in the quality of my hotel and suggested I come over to meet with him. I suspect he is quite annoyed with Ma Buqing for not supporting him in his campaign against Mao. Of course, I don’t know if what happened even qualifies really as a `campaign`, as such, but the Mas were very conspicuous by their absence.
I didn’t really enjoy the meeting with Chiang, and frankly, I never have all the times I’ve met him. He never shows the slightest interest in Western culture beyond what he needs to be polite. Most of the conversation was steered towards trying to get me to use my influence on Henry to have Henry in his turn use his influence in Washington to have more American dollars come China’s way... well, Chiang’s way. This was all unnecessary anyway as I know Henry already does all he can on Chiang’s behalf. I was more than happy to have this meeting cut short by the arrival of some messages for Chiang that forced him to end the evening early. I will however say that the food provided was quite excellent. Peter is in town and I think I might be able to start up some Pinochle tonight if I can get to the public house fast enough.
31 October: I had the idea of trying to explain the concept of Hallowe`en to some of the people who frequent The Americaine, but thought better of it. The neighborhood here is a little too seedy for children to try and go guising, and even if they did, there aren’t a lot of sweets shops around for the adults to get any decent treats. None of the patrons from the States brought it up, so I let the matter lie as well.
4 November: I stayed up late at The Americaine this evening trying to work on an article for Henry about the salt trade in Golumd. I’ve been trying to find an interesting angle on it by linking into the ongoing trade China had with the West along the Silk Road that predated Roman times. I haven’t been happy with what I have written and will probably trash my notes. The only real fun for this evening was hanging out with Sheng Jie, one of Konrad’s new waitresses that he hired a short while back. She’s a tiny slip of a thing, only 152cm maybe, and keeps her shiny dark hair cut short in the usual style of the ladies these days. We were up past 3am while she was cleaning the public house and I was trying to write. I made her laugh a little by doing several off-key renderings of songs from The Mikado, which I usually only do when I’ve had a few... but I didn’t. Did I? Booze and writing don’t usually mix, so needless to say, I didn’t get too much work done. I asked Jie to keep her ears open in case Konrad ever let anything slip about the lady he has in the picture behind the bar, but since he is still struggling with Chinese, I doubt he’d let anything slip she would understand. But she giggled a lot and seemed to think it is all great fun to pretend to be a spy. Incidentally, I have been struggling to get Konrad to pick up some Mandarin one or two nights a week, but it hasn’t gone well. I’ve been having far better luck learning some German from him... maybe I should report him to the Lord High Executioner for his lack of academic effort? Or the Lord Chief Justice? Ha-ha! Anyway, Konrad won’t be enrolling in Yale anytime soon. Maybe Harvard...
5 November: Stayed in bed most of today trying to get over my hangover. Reviewed my diary entry and the article I was trying to write, and only understood about half of it. Best not to junk all of it, though, since it might be fun to re-read and have a laugh at some day.
18 November: Spain is officially in a state of Civil War. This is a conflict that has been brewing for most of the decade. Spain was hit hard (like everyone else, really) by the Great Depression and the king there was out of favor with the people. Although at that time still a constitutional monarchy, the government that was voted into power in 1931 called a constitutional convention to end the monarchy and also disenfranchise the other pillar of Spanish society, the Catholic Church. This made the new Republic popular with some factions of the people, but made it unpopular with key figures in the Army who are loyal to the older institutions. General Francisco Franco attempted a coup from his base in Spanish Morocco, but the Republican government in Madrid had enough support to hold out and escalate the situation into all-out war. It is now Franco’s forces, calling themselves the Nationalists, fighting from their bases in the countryside against the Republican government based in the major cities. Usually in cases of `country vs. city` wars, the countryside wins, since the cities can’t survive without them if they have no help. General Franco is a bit of an odd character. I heard a story about him once that during an inspection of a field mess in Morocco, a soldier waved a bowl of stew at him while complaining about it. Some of the stew sloshed on the general’s uniform. Franco sampled the stew, agreed it was terrible and promised to have it taken care of, and then had the soldier shot.
[size=-2]Spain at the start of its Civil War[/size]
24 November: Had a wire today from Henry, who was too excited to wait. The first issue of the re-launched LIFE magazine hit the streets today (which is the 23rd in the States, due to the time difference from China). I was too late to get any of my own work in, worse luck, but it is thrilling nonetheless. Henry has promised to make sure that the issues come my way on a regular basis, but that could mean I see none at all and then get a bundle of four or five all at once. His first cover features the dam at Fort Peck, Montana. Not quite the most inspirational of images, and I certainly would have picked Hoover Dam if I was going to pick a dam at all. Hoover has a far more interesting story behind it and was only just recently dedicated in `35, too. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that the inside material is far more interesting after I finally get a copy out here. I’d hate to see this great experiment end up stillborn. Oh, and while I was in communication with Henry I took the time to wish him a happy Thanksgiving, which the Americans should start celebrating soon[size=-2][2][/size].
7 December: Very interesting day today. There was a lot of activity outside the city, with plenty of peasant workers trying to clear away a suitable space to make an airfield. At one side some construction crews are working on erecting what looks like a tower to control air traffic. While I was out there watching and deciding if I should take any shots, a plane came down and landed on the dirt road leading up to what I now assume will be Golmud’s first airport. I managed to have a few words with the pilot and he was gracious enough to let me snap a photo since I was already out with my camera. He introduced himself as Captain Claire Chennault and had just arrived from the States last week. It looks like Chiang may be interested in trying to purchase aviation assets from America and Chennault was sent to help him properly evaluate his needs. Chiang then sent him on to do a quick tour of the border provinces. Chennault mentioned that it is well for Chiang that he is doing this survey, since he has no real concept of what it means to maintain an air force. It isn’t enough to just say you want to buy planes; you also need to create a support network to maintain, fuel, and arm them, let alone produce pilots.
Later in the evening I took our guest over to The Americaine where he was very happy to meet some of the other expats. During our discussions he mentioned that he had been with the Army Air Corps since the Great War, but recurring bouts with bronchitis were making it more likely he would be permanently grounded. If that happened, he said, he’d probably retire. We were also curious to know how much he was enjoying China and his reactions were quite positive, hinting that he might like to come back in the future.
[size=-2]Captain Claire Chennault of the United States Army Air Corps[/size]
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[size=-2]Editor’s Notes:
1. The 14th Dalai Lama was born July 6th, 1935
2. Since 1957 Canada celebrates Thanksgiving on the second Monday in October. From 1931 - 1957 it was set each year by proclamation, except in 1935 when it was canceled due to a general election. In 1936 it fell on October 12th[/size]
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1936, Fall - Unexpected Death of Mao Tse-tung
[/size]
[size=-2]The original issue of the new LIFE magazine, depicting Fort Peck Dam[/size]
3 October: Ma Buqing announced over the wireless today that the Ma Clique has launched a final war of extermination against the Communist Chinese led by Mao Tse-tung out of Yan`an. This move allegedly has the full support of Chiang Kai-shek down in Nanking. The only thing I find odd about this, however, is that none of the Ma generals have forces anywhere near Yan`an while Chiang has divisions piled up all along the border. I don’t know what Buqing’s plans are, but they look to involve not firing a shot. I suppose Sun Tzu would heartily approve.
[size=-2]Chiang was prepared for a full-out assault, but the Reds gave up immediately[/size]
6 October: Chiang’s troops marched into Yan`an today completely unopposed. From what I’ve heard, Mao Tse-tung was immediately turned over by the local Communist Party officials and executed by Chiang. Word on the street is that Chiang cut a deal with the Reds- he would stop persecuting them and give them the province they now hold to turn into a semi-autonomous worker’s paradise, and they give up Mao for crimes against the Republic of China. What specific crimes these might be, I can’t imagine, since the Reds haven’t been any worse than any of the other various factions around the countryside. There seems to have been a show trial that lasted an hour and ended with the sentencing and execution of Mao. So Chiang has finally completed his purge of the Communists that he started back in 1926, although he is allowing the Party to continue to exist. I don’t know how wise of a move that might be. Stalin is bound to be pretty upset that Chiang refused his help back in the 20s, and as long as there are Reds in China anywhere, they are a potential knife at the throat of whoever plans to rule the country.
[size=-2]The final photograph of Mao Tse-tung[/size]
This whole episode also indirectly caused a major fight over at the public house. I had asked Konrad to run the local announcements over the wireless so we could keep track of what was happening over in Yan`an. However, back in the States, they were running the final game of the 1936 World Series this same day. Crosetti insisted that we listen to the game, and most of the expats backed him up, but many of the locals were far more concerned with what was happening with Mao (obviously). Things were about to get pretty ugly but I told Konrad to play the game and I let the locals know I would be getting wires regarding any urgent events from my hotel. I then spent the day in eager anticipation of news. By the time word came in that Chiang had seized Yan`an and Mao, the game was over and the Yankee fans were celebrating the victory over the Giants. Having that plus the news I had collected kept people celebrating well into the night. I had actually been following the Series before Chiang became active. The second game that took place on October 2nd was particularly exciting. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning (of course), Hank Leiber hit a ball that would have been a home run, but newcomer Yankee fielder Joe DiMaggio ran off the field and up the clubhouse steps to get it. The story soon spread that he was congratulated by President Roosevelt for this catch, the President having attended the game. You can imagine Crosetti’s reactions when the announcer called this play over the wireless.
[video=youtube;4J0GYwGPaFk] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J0GYwGPaFk [/video]
7 October: More shocks over the wireless, and this time not interrupted with a ball game. Ma Hongkui has announced that Tibet is officially considered to be a region in rebellion against the rightful government of China and that all necessary actions will be taken by the Ma Clique to assist that government in suppressing this rebellion (his statement is even more obfuscated in the original Mandarin). The Militia divisions guarding the city are now in a state of high alert and are constantly scanning the roads to the west.
Some of the other rhetoric spewed out by Hongkui highlights the fact that the lines that divide China today are partially ethnic as well as sectional. Off in the northeast, you have the Manchus who tossed out the Han Chinese’s Ming dynasty which in its turn had overthrown the Mongol’s Yuan dynasty. The Han Chinese are by far the most numerous group and have pride of place of sorts as being the ones from where Chinese civilization sprung up along the Yellow and Yangtze River valleys. Up north you have the Mongols, which are mainly a collection of different tribes, and then to the west here you have the Hui Chinese. The Hui Chinese are the descendants of traders along the old Silk Road who intermingled with the Han Chinese, and are primarily Moslems. In the far west we have the Tibetans and the mixture of various Turkic races such as the Uighurs that make Sinkiang their home.
Tibet was an independent kingdom long into antiquity but went into a serious decline in the 9th century. It was conquered during the general Mongol expansion in the 1200s, and when that Empire fell apart after the death of Genghis Khan it became nominally part of China under the Mongolian Yuan dynasty. The Mongols maintained limited control over the area (bad roads are a perennial problem as old as time) which became even more lax under the Ming. The Qing tightened things up a little bit but the region was still largely autonomous up through the opening of the 20th century.
The 13th Dalai Lama, who is the religious and political ruler of the country, spent the early years of the century being involved in power plays between Russia and Great Britain as those two nations competed for dominance in Central Asia. Naturally this didn’t endear him with the Qing, who sent troops to reassert Chinese authority in 1910. He fled to India but came back in 1913 after the Qing dynasty was overthrown in Sun Yat-sen’s Xinhai Revolution, and declared the outright independence of Tibet. Due to the ongoing troubles in China proper, he was able to maintain this independence without conflict up through 1932, when Chiang dispatched Ma Bufang and a sizeable army to take control for China once again. Ma Bufang was close to winning, but British pressure on Chiang compelled him to order Bufang to sign a treaty with the Tibetans that has left them nominally independent. But it would appear that the Mas are going to take advantage of the current wave of peace sentiments sweeping Great Britain and renounce the treaty. The 13th Dalai Lama died at the end `33, I wonder if the 14th Lama will prove to have the same acumen his predecessor did, but since he’s only a boy[size=-2][1][/size], we may never find out. He’ll probably need twice as much skill though, if he needs to make up for not having any British support against the Mas in this go-round.
[size=-2]The 13th Dalai Lama (center, seated) during his Indian exile[/size]
20 October: I received a surprise visit from Chiang Kai-shek today. He came to town to have a meeting with the Ma families and had heard (from Henry, I suppose) that I was here. He seemed to be a little disappointed in the quality of my hotel and suggested I come over to meet with him. I suspect he is quite annoyed with Ma Buqing for not supporting him in his campaign against Mao. Of course, I don’t know if what happened even qualifies really as a `campaign`, as such, but the Mas were very conspicuous by their absence.
I didn’t really enjoy the meeting with Chiang, and frankly, I never have all the times I’ve met him. He never shows the slightest interest in Western culture beyond what he needs to be polite. Most of the conversation was steered towards trying to get me to use my influence on Henry to have Henry in his turn use his influence in Washington to have more American dollars come China’s way... well, Chiang’s way. This was all unnecessary anyway as I know Henry already does all he can on Chiang’s behalf. I was more than happy to have this meeting cut short by the arrival of some messages for Chiang that forced him to end the evening early. I will however say that the food provided was quite excellent. Peter is in town and I think I might be able to start up some Pinochle tonight if I can get to the public house fast enough.
31 October: I had the idea of trying to explain the concept of Hallowe`en to some of the people who frequent The Americaine, but thought better of it. The neighborhood here is a little too seedy for children to try and go guising, and even if they did, there aren’t a lot of sweets shops around for the adults to get any decent treats. None of the patrons from the States brought it up, so I let the matter lie as well.
4 November: I stayed up late at The Americaine this evening trying to work on an article for Henry about the salt trade in Golumd. I’ve been trying to find an interesting angle on it by linking into the ongoing trade China had with the West along the Silk Road that predated Roman times. I haven’t been happy with what I have written and will probably trash my notes. The only real fun for this evening was hanging out with Sheng Jie, one of Konrad’s new waitresses that he hired a short while back. She’s a tiny slip of a thing, only 152cm maybe, and keeps her shiny dark hair cut short in the usual style of the ladies these days. We were up past 3am while she was cleaning the public house and I was trying to write. I made her laugh a little by doing several off-key renderings of songs from The Mikado, which I usually only do when I’ve had a few... but I didn’t. Did I? Booze and writing don’t usually mix, so needless to say, I didn’t get too much work done. I asked Jie to keep her ears open in case Konrad ever let anything slip about the lady he has in the picture behind the bar, but since he is still struggling with Chinese, I doubt he’d let anything slip she would understand. But she giggled a lot and seemed to think it is all great fun to pretend to be a spy. Incidentally, I have been struggling to get Konrad to pick up some Mandarin one or two nights a week, but it hasn’t gone well. I’ve been having far better luck learning some German from him... maybe I should report him to the Lord High Executioner for his lack of academic effort? Or the Lord Chief Justice? Ha-ha! Anyway, Konrad won’t be enrolling in Yale anytime soon. Maybe Harvard...
5 November: Stayed in bed most of today trying to get over my hangover. Reviewed my diary entry and the article I was trying to write, and only understood about half of it. Best not to junk all of it, though, since it might be fun to re-read and have a laugh at some day.
18 November: Spain is officially in a state of Civil War. This is a conflict that has been brewing for most of the decade. Spain was hit hard (like everyone else, really) by the Great Depression and the king there was out of favor with the people. Although at that time still a constitutional monarchy, the government that was voted into power in 1931 called a constitutional convention to end the monarchy and also disenfranchise the other pillar of Spanish society, the Catholic Church. This made the new Republic popular with some factions of the people, but made it unpopular with key figures in the Army who are loyal to the older institutions. General Francisco Franco attempted a coup from his base in Spanish Morocco, but the Republican government in Madrid had enough support to hold out and escalate the situation into all-out war. It is now Franco’s forces, calling themselves the Nationalists, fighting from their bases in the countryside against the Republican government based in the major cities. Usually in cases of `country vs. city` wars, the countryside wins, since the cities can’t survive without them if they have no help. General Franco is a bit of an odd character. I heard a story about him once that during an inspection of a field mess in Morocco, a soldier waved a bowl of stew at him while complaining about it. Some of the stew sloshed on the general’s uniform. Franco sampled the stew, agreed it was terrible and promised to have it taken care of, and then had the soldier shot.
[size=-2]Spain at the start of its Civil War[/size]
24 November: Had a wire today from Henry, who was too excited to wait. The first issue of the re-launched LIFE magazine hit the streets today (which is the 23rd in the States, due to the time difference from China). I was too late to get any of my own work in, worse luck, but it is thrilling nonetheless. Henry has promised to make sure that the issues come my way on a regular basis, but that could mean I see none at all and then get a bundle of four or five all at once. His first cover features the dam at Fort Peck, Montana. Not quite the most inspirational of images, and I certainly would have picked Hoover Dam if I was going to pick a dam at all. Hoover has a far more interesting story behind it and was only just recently dedicated in `35, too. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that the inside material is far more interesting after I finally get a copy out here. I’d hate to see this great experiment end up stillborn. Oh, and while I was in communication with Henry I took the time to wish him a happy Thanksgiving, which the Americans should start celebrating soon[size=-2][2][/size].
7 December: Very interesting day today. There was a lot of activity outside the city, with plenty of peasant workers trying to clear away a suitable space to make an airfield. At one side some construction crews are working on erecting what looks like a tower to control air traffic. While I was out there watching and deciding if I should take any shots, a plane came down and landed on the dirt road leading up to what I now assume will be Golmud’s first airport. I managed to have a few words with the pilot and he was gracious enough to let me snap a photo since I was already out with my camera. He introduced himself as Captain Claire Chennault and had just arrived from the States last week. It looks like Chiang may be interested in trying to purchase aviation assets from America and Chennault was sent to help him properly evaluate his needs. Chiang then sent him on to do a quick tour of the border provinces. Chennault mentioned that it is well for Chiang that he is doing this survey, since he has no real concept of what it means to maintain an air force. It isn’t enough to just say you want to buy planes; you also need to create a support network to maintain, fuel, and arm them, let alone produce pilots.
Later in the evening I took our guest over to The Americaine where he was very happy to meet some of the other expats. During our discussions he mentioned that he had been with the Army Air Corps since the Great War, but recurring bouts with bronchitis were making it more likely he would be permanently grounded. If that happened, he said, he’d probably retire. We were also curious to know how much he was enjoying China and his reactions were quite positive, hinting that he might like to come back in the future.
[size=-2]Captain Claire Chennault of the United States Army Air Corps[/size]
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[size=-2]Editor’s Notes:
1. The 14th Dalai Lama was born July 6th, 1935
2. Since 1957 Canada celebrates Thanksgiving on the second Monday in October. From 1931 - 1957 it was set each year by proclamation, except in 1935 when it was canceled due to a general election. In 1936 it fell on October 12th[/size]
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love the detail you're putting into this ... it really makes it flow well and easy to read --- you'll be rivalling El Pip's butterflies at this rate