An account of the fighting between Chinese and Japanese armies in Jehol during March 1933 together with comments thereon, by G.J. Yorke

[China, probably at Shanghai: Self-published], 1933.

Price: $3,600.00

Softcover. Complete. 95 mimeographed pages bound at the top by two steel brads. Pages are toned, but supple. Some foxing on the first and last few leaves; heaviest on the blank cover. The brads have some rust. An exceptionally detailed and well-written account of the military battles in Jehol between Japan and China that took place in 1933, four years before the official start of the Second Sino-Japanese War.

This appears to be the only firsthand account of the fighting by a Westerner. The campaign, known as Changchen Kangzhan ("The Defense of the Great Wall") in Chinese, lasted for five months from early January to the end of May. During the campaign, Japanese forces overwhelmed China's National Revolutionary Army and captured the Inner Mongolian province of Jehol (Rehe) which they then incorporated into the puppet state of Manchukuo, extending Manchukuo's border to the Great Wall. The truce forced China to acknowledge the loss of Rehe, accept the independence of Manchukuo, and demilitarize a 100 kilometer wide zone south of the Great Wall.

Gerald Yorke was a famed English cricketer who may have been commissioned as a major in the British intelligence service. He was a member of Aleister Crowley's inner circle of magic and served as Crowley's personal representative to the Dalai Lama. Yorke also traveled as a special correspondent for Reuters throughout China in ways described as "eccentric to the point of lunacy" often in the company of an "ex-bandit" and "watched Far Eastern History being made . . . at uncomfortably close quarters," according to *The Spectator*, January 10, 1936. During this period, Yorke probably also worked as an agent for the gigantic, Chinese-based British conglomerate, Matheson & Co., Ltd.

Scarce. *OCLC* locates no copies, although there is a copy at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), and two copies (once held in the Matheson Chairman's strongroom) now located at the Cambridge University Library. Thus, this is apparently the fourth known copy.


Item #405712

item image

Item #405712 An account of the fighting between Chinese and Japanese armies in Jehol during March 1933 together with comments thereon, by G.J. Yorke. J. YORKE, erald.