5 f>	CRISIS   IN   CHINA	rv
the measure ot" general awareness today may he read
in the panic of chancelleries, subscribed by the metal
signature of armaments. Collective security was a
fair phrase in hjjii. Now we do not even hear it.
Between the lines of that precise and diplomatic
document, the Lytton Report, may be read the
tragedy of the North-eastern people. (Another report
should be compiled, telling the story of what has
since happened to those Chinese who were indiscreet
enough to give evidence before the Lytton Com-
mission.) Not the least part in that tragedy belongs
to the Tungpei army, withdrawn from its homeland
without the chance to oiler resistance. But against
the background of '*North-eastern*' the land of
White Mountains and Black Rivers, as the Tungpei
men love to call it the drama is not yet played out.
For at least, in these hitter years* it has found its hero.
He was foreshadowed, perhaps, by that wiry little
horseman General Ma Chan-shan, whose gallant re-
sistance to the invaders in frozen Tsitsihar stirred the
imagination of the world. But he lias since become
the theme of some of the best modern writing in
China; you will see him in his fur cap, rifle bUiek
against the snow, in any exhibition of modern
painting or woodcuts by the young Shanghai artists
whom Lu Hftim used to praise* He in not yet the Red
Guard of the Chinese Revolution, He is the Man~
churian Volunteer,
It was dark again when we reached Shihchiachuang*
AH our days neemctl to elose with a night arrival at
a guarded station. We made our way back to the
familiar hotel with a feeling of hopelessness. Sian
seemed further off than even