The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 118
118 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN whether natural or artificial, were encased in gold. It was common knowledge that the greater part of the goods that used to be carried over the Burma Road, while it was open, were treated by Kung as his private property and were sold by him on the black market. A loan that he had negotiated with the British did not go through because he insisted that the money should be handed over to him to be employed for the purposes for which he said he wanted it, and the British insisted that they must supervise its application. On the other hand, the upper middle class, and there were many estimable people among them, suffered great hardship because there was continuous inflation, and the value of the currency dropped everyday, and therefore prices went up every day. These people had, by that time, disposed of all that they had which could be dispensed with, and their condition was pitiable. The result of all this corruption was that the peasant was having a very rough deal. I related all this to the Viceroy in support of my strong feeling that once Japan was out of the way, the Communists would spread all over China. He may not have considered my reasons very strong. But I was convinced that my feeling was well founded. Number two: I told him I had heard a lot of talk about the Chinese peasant being an individualist, that he would never tolerate communism. That was all fiction. He was so much oppressed that all he bothered about was some relief from peculation and oppression and corruption. If anybody could give him some stability in conditions and some relief from oppression, he would welcome them with both arms. That the Viceroy did not like either. He found it unpleasant and disagreeable. Thirdly, I told him that the notion that the communism of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai was of a pink variety of communism, that it was not deep-dyed, was all nonsense. They had all been trained in Moscow and they were 100 percent Red communists, dark red, if it was preferred, but certainly not pink. These were the main impressions that I brought away. The impression with regard to the strong personality of Chiang Kai-Shek was greatly reinforced. He was trying to do his best. Later on he got rid of Kung, his brother-in-law. Like all Chinese he had a strong family feeling, but Madame had it in much greater strength. She was a Soong. Her brother was, for a time, Foreign Minister. You might have read in Gunther's book, the chapter on "Let Us Sing a Song of Soongs," I must