Sapajou - 5

By August 1929, with tough action against remaining Communists in Shanghai by the authorities of the French Concession, International Settlement and the Chinese city, the problem seemed, if not fully settled, at least on the way to a solution - as is demonstrated in a somewhat complacent cartoon showing the three police forces hauling in a very full net of Communist fish (Figure 45).

Perhaps more prophetically than Sapajou had intended, however, a few fish that have escaped capture are swimming fast in the opposite direction. Thus it was that one year later, far from having disappeared completely, the Communists - from now on portrayed just as Sapajou was wont to draw more traditional Chinese bandits, give or take a hammer and sickle here and there - were shown as capable of seriously threatening foreign interests on the Yangtze (Figure 46).

From that time on, Chiang Kai-shek's various encirclement and other anti-Communist campaigns periodically provided Sapajou with subjects. Needless to say, the sympathies of the artist and his editors were entirely with Chiang, but this did not stop them from noting either his financial difficulties in prosecuting his campaigns (Figure 47), nor the fact that despite his best efforts, the enemy, far from being defeated, seemed to be multiplying (Figure 48). We have already seen two of Sapajou's cartoons dealing with the Sian Incident, but another is included here which warns of the dangers of any alliance with the Communists, pointing to the tragic contemporary example of Spain (Figure 49).

Sapajou's final comment on this question came one month later, and while the sentiments expressed - the need for the Communists to abandon their doctrines and methods before joining forces with "Miss China", busy watering her pot of Three People's Principles - would have been fully approved by the Kuomintang, the wolves which the Communist guerilla has in tow do not bode well either for the Principles or for the young lady (Figure 50).