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WM4TBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAYe JUNE 7p,1989, PAGE 7 PAGE SEYEN' Power corrupts, absolute power corrupta absolutetely. LordActon Last week I wrote that the only difference between the Chinese students? revoit and what has happened in other places was the scsie of the demonstration and the total lack of violence. The first point is stili valid but the latter was shattered on Saturday. The Iananinen massacre will be recorded as one of the blackest days, not just in Chinese. history, but in the history of the modemn world. For a nation te openly slaughter hun- - dreds, perbaps thousands, of unarmed citizens is unpreceden- ted in modem times. One thinks of the Sharpville massacre in S. Africa or the Intifada in Israel, but the numbers Illed were a mere fraction of what happened in China. Not since the Second World War bas there been any equivalent action and I cannot think of a similar incident in peacetime in the last hundred years. ,-tI <rrl'rrd' a iu L The fact that it happened is a sign of how bankrupt the KELLFI NG HT E IW'tCE INI ICHIINA~ Chinese leadership bas become. In a few short weeks, we have 'watched themn change from elderly sages to senile________________________________________ fascists. If Deng Xiaoping had retired a couple of months ago, he would have been revered as the architeot of modemn China; now he will be reviled as a brutal dictator, in the mold of Hitler and Stalin. Remember the handshake a couple of___ weeks ago between Mikhail Gorbaehev and Deng Xiaoping - - how significant it seemed - how hollow, how utterly meaningless it seems today. Atevery step the Chinese leadership has misread the signs. They failed te grasp whatthe people wanted and te realize that force will not send them running back te theirC homes, classrooms and jobs. They failed te grasp the degree of disatisfaction that a million demonstrators represented. When the occupation began te dwindle, they interpreted it as a weakening of the student position. Even when they started shootinig, they believed the students would scatter, but no, thyhad te, keep on shooting ... and illing ... and shooting.. Events in China over the last" few months have defied easy predictions perhaps because of the continuous stalemate and the lack of provocative acts. Last Saturday ended that. The weeks te corne may be more predictable. 0fil the things the goverrnment could have done, nothing was more likely te cause an escalation than the action they took. Martyrdorn is a strong oriental tradition. The end of the current government is now only a matter of time. Just as there were those within the governnients of H-itier and Stalin who opposed the brutality, there are many within the Chinese govemment and armny who are as shocked as we are. This internal opposition will be boldened by events on the street, and those events are moving fast. I amn writing this on Sunday afternoon only a day after the massacre and by the time this goes te, press on Wednesday, events may have already surpassed my wildest expectations. BROOKL1N, LOOKING NORTH ON HIGHWAY 12 FROM GRASS PARK C. 1924 Regardless of how it happons, a new revolution is Model T Ford automobiles are parked by the side of the street in this view of Brooklin 65 underway in China. It may be fought between factions of the years ago. The brick building at left was demolished in 1972 to make way for the Bank cf "People's" army, or behind closed doors within the leadership Commerce and the fraxne building at right was demolished about 1929. htyAdSpoo itself, or it may be fought in the streets between a new Wdb rdu hc Peoples' aradte government's ar. vC(lhina a year from with force. Expect more martyrs. For syrmbollo reasons, the Council. funerals will be held in Tiananmen Square, and short cf Beethoven Lodge 100F, Brooklin, will hold a decoration day at Groveside Cemetery on kilirng tens cf thousands in cold blood I doubt at this point if June 14. there is any force on earth that can stop them. Expect the students te reoccupy the square and faced with that humiliation expect the governent te falI. 75 TEARS AGO Whether the government is replaced initiaily with new froni the Thursday, June 4, 1914 edition cf the hardliners or by reformer;, the students and their supporters WHITY GAZETTE AND CHRONICE wiIl maintain the pressure until a new group cf younger * Fred Howard Annes will promote Whitby at an advertising club convention ini Toronto. leaders emerges dedicated te, serving the people. e Rev. J. C. Bell cf Broolin Methodist Church is retiring after 40Oyears ini the ministry. In the end, some form cof demnocracy will corne to China, * W. E. N. Sinclair cf Oshawa wiil be the Iàbera candidate in the upcoming provincial but just like in Poland the economic costs cf uncertain élTetons fEgadBnvln oit edtei nulcuc aaet h ats leadership will provide daunting challenges te, any newaThSoso nln eeoetocty ldhïrnulcuc paetteBptt governnient. It is ironic that China7s darkest heur should hr oMa31 occur mn the same week as Solidarity's victory in Poland.______ ___________________________