In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

21 Communist Unrest and Japanese Aggression The clashes between the Chinese and Japanese in Manchuria and at Shanghai attracted much public attention and proved to be the beginnings of the road to full war between China and Japan in 1937 and to Pearl Harbor in 1941. They also tended to overshadow the domestic troubles in China. The Kuomin­ tang and the leaders in Nanking might claim that they had created China United, but the Kuomintang itself was divided by factionalism , and rival warlords of doubtful allegiance still occupied much of the country. Nanking was also increasingly diverted by Communist bands operating in the countryside, where they often employed bandit-like tactics. Foreigners labeled these gangs variously as Communists , Communist bandits, or just bandits. A perplexing incident involving these bandits , nominally within the operational range of the Yangtze River Patrol Force, was the kidnapping of Captain James Baker. After a career commanding ships of the Army Transport Service, the sixty-eight-year-old Baker, still wanting to work rather than retire, was in 1932 skipper of the Yangtze Rapid Steamship Company’s Motor Lighter No. 2. The motor lighter, on 16 February 1932, ran aground on Low Point, a shallow not far from the Communist -held village of Pailochi, on the north side of the Yangtze about 122 miles upriver from Hankow. Communist bandits from the Soviet of the Chien-li District quickly boarded the lighter and carried off into captivity Baker, his comprador, and the crew. Pailochi proved to be the point through which the Communists would negotiate regarding the release of Captain Baker. Across the river from Pailochi was the village of Mopanshih, then garrisoned by a non-Communist force. There the Yangtze Rapid’s I Ping had grounded on the river’s south bank. To Mopanshih, Rear Admiral Yancey S. Williams, the Yangtze Patrol commander, dispatched first the gunboat Oahu and subsequently Panay to protect I Ping during salvage operations. Apparently, the gunboat commanders did not participate in negotiations with the Communists; instead, they transmitted messages from the Communists and Baker to the outside world. The gunboats, however, were a secure point where exchanges for Baker’s release could be conducted. Consul General Walter Adams at Hankow believed that, if American officials were directly involved in negotiations with the Communists , the bandits would be encouraged to overestimate Baker’s importance and to raise their demands. Like the gunboat commanders at Mopanshih, therefore, he largely served as a facilitator for the negotiations by others. Adams urged the governor of Hunan province , General Ho Chen-chen, to act on behalf of Baker without apparent results. Adams himself conceded that a Chinese military expedition against the Communists would only cause them to shift their base and possibly provoke them to kill Baker. Moreover, the commander of the Soviet army in Hupeh province, General Ho Lung, controlled a force of perhaps eighty thousand well-equipped soldiers.1 The Communists in February 1932 seemed even to threaten Hankow . At one point the Chinese authorities in Hankow asked the British if they would pro- Communist Unrest and Japanese Aggression / 325 tect the bund of the former British Concession , and the Americans considered whether they might land a force to patrol the bund of the former Russian Concession. Admiral Williams finally decided that the naval force available to him could undertake no more than to defend the consulate general and the naval godown against a Communist attack. He and Adams agreed that, should the Communist threat prove real, an effort should be made to reduce the number of Americans in the area.2 Because the Americans and the Chinese were unable or unwilling to employ force, the only solution appeared to be a ransom payment for Baker’s release. Baker’s appeals for help, relayed by the gunboats at Mopanshih, were heart rending. On 24 January the captain reported that two agents of the local Soviet had threatened that unless a ransom (indemnity) of $10 million was forthcoming, he would be beheaded. The poor fellow implored Consul General Adams, “if there is anything you can possibly do for me, please do it in the name of God.” In further messages to Adams, Baker warned that if the Communist demands were not met, “I am about to die.” Or again: “I am now living under awful conditions trying to exist on Chinese food. The cold is intense. I cannot last much longer under these conditions. Am getting weak for want of proper food so please hurry...

Share