24 CRISIS IN CHINA it
paper. If only I could get to Sian, it might be possible
to solve something of the mystery,
But how to get there? The province of Shensi is
normally reached by the Lnnghai railway, which cuts
across the main Peking Hankow line at Chengehow,
and follows the Yellow River through a bottle-neck
pass at Tungkwan. Hut Tungkwan was now the front
of civil war. The railway and all communication by
this route had already been cut, and the borders of the
urebel'* province, would be stiff with Government
troops.
The one obvious way remaining was by air. I rang
up the newspaper-man who had been with us on the
day of the demonstration.
"How about Hying to Sian?"
"You're telling me/* he responded. "There isn't a
journalist in China who wouldn't jump at the chance
right now. But IVe tried the Eurasia Company and
oiFcred to hire the whole plane myself they won't
look at it. They're afraid of losing the machine. You
can't get to Sian by air for any money."
This sounded unpromising. Three days had passed
since the coup, but the situation was as confused as
ever- It hud been established that Chiang was alive,
but very much a prisoner. I wanted badly to get to
Sian,
Lute the next evening a Chinese friend telephoned
to me: "Have you seen the Tass reports on Sian?*' I
hadn't; but they were stimulating* According to
editorials in Pravda and Jswestia, the Sinn rising had
been engineered by the Japanese, with Wang Ching-
wei (then, curiously enough, in Europe) as chief
go-between. Chang Hsueh-liang had stabbed the