PROBLEM OF SUCCESSION TO MAO GREATLY EXAGGERATED
Speculation by Western experts over the succession to Mao was definitively refuted by Anna Louise Strong in her October 20 Letter from China. Such speculation, she says, "is plain nonsense for Mao personally will be running the show in China as long as most of those 'experts' live." She observed at the National Day festivities that Mao "had a good memory to recognize people and did not need any glasses, either for distance or for reading." "I marvelled at the length of time Chairman Mao stood in the hot sunlight and at the energy with which he continued to wave to the passing crowds." He also seemed immune to "hot klieg lights." At the end of this exhausting day she asked Mao, as he autographed his portrait for her, if he was not "very tired" and he said, "No, I'm not tired." In her opinion, "Mao himself seems likely to plan and lead the anti-imperialist struggle for decades. I think he may really outlast it. Even through a nuclear war."
~li-
EXHIBITION IN ENGLAND