^* In the spring of 2009, Chinese newspapers published commemorative articles in celebration of the forthcoming sixtieth anniversary of the proclamation by Mao Zedong in Peking of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. On April 18, the Nanking newspaper Jinling Evening News published a front-page interview with the clerk of the telegraph office in General Yang’s Lane who handled the dispatches of Bill Kuan and myself reporting the fall of Chiang Kai-shek’s capital to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Herewith is a translation of the article:

This is the indelible recollection by the former telegram translator and underground Chinese Communist Party member, Lu Liwei, who is 81-years-old, of that night when news of the liberation of Nanjing was first disseminated from here:

“April 23rd, 60 years ago, 10 P.M., there were explosions in the train station and at the airport. The entire city was lit up with flames and the atmosphere was permeated with fear. A little after 3 A.M. of the 24th, guards of the telegraph building heard a jeep coming. Everyone in the building tensed up, holding assorted weapons in hand: bricks, sticks, and clubs, in anticipation of a terrible fight against bandits. The sound of the jeep came closer and closer, and we all had our hearts in our throats. The passengers in the jeep turned out to be Seymour Topping of the Associated Press and Bill [Kuan] of the French news agency.”

Lu took a quick look at the telegram by Bill. It was a three-word piece, “Reds take Nanking.” The piece by the reporter from the AP, on the other hand, was much more extensive. It was then, that Lu realized that Nanjing had been liberated. Both telegrams were sent smoothly. Unfortunately the short piece by the French reporter was mistaken by the French News Agency as the title of a lengthy report, and the piece never got printed because the agency was waiting for the full report. During that long wait, Mr. Topping became the first journalist to report the liberation of Nanjing to the entire world.