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In advance of their arrival, Pacification Commissioner General Yu got his hands on 300 Kwangtung fighting planes, two large arsenals, an airplane factory, half a million rifles, vast ammunition stores, anti-aircraft guns and tanks. Next he tried to think what to do with South China's comparatively well-trained 200,000 "regular" Chinese soldiers who will find time hanging heavy if they are not provided with some sort of activity. The entire South China rebellion, it appeared, was an affair not of lead bullets but of "silver bullets," the elegant Chinese euphemism for bribes too stupendous to be called "squeeze."
Chinese censorship will rigidly suppress the facts and Chinese consuls abroad will loudly protest rumors, but what Canton, Shanghai and Nanking were saying last week boiled down to this: 1) General Chen took "silver bullets" from the Japanese and bought a good many lead bullets as a gesture to bring himself seriously to the notice of Nanking. 2) He then accepted "silver bullets" not to fight Nanking, which considered this a good investment as it thought he would never get away with the $30,000,000 in "small money" which would thus fall to them. 3) General Chen was shaken down by Chinese officers of his command, one getting $600,000. 4) He got away safely to Hongkong with possibly the largest haul ever made by a Chinese commander in this classic maneuver.