xv	MASS MEETINGS AND MISSIONARIES	235
Sian, especially from the leaders of the South-
western provinces, expressing sympathy and support
for the North-west. There was a nation-wide re-
action against civil war; but one strong party at
Nanking was doing its best to make war inevitable.
The reasons, of course, were the old familiar ones.
The whole North-west, It was claimed, was under
Communist Influence. The Red Army was threatening
the peace, and no course remained but to suppress
the forces of these "rebels" who had made a common
cause with the Communists. Nanking's tolerance was
now exhausted.
From Fenghua, Chiang Kai-shek continued to
send in his resignation to a Government that as
regularly refused to accept it. But no one knew what
role Chiang was really playing. A situation that his
release from Sian had seemed to resolve had suddenly
grown tense once more, and fraught with ominous
possibilities.