HENRI DE FREMERY Dutch military officer and spy, especially close to Chiang Kai Shek's Chief of Staff He Yingqin. De Fremery was captured by the Japanese and spent the balance of the war in their hands. A superlative war-date account of his experiences with Chiang Kai-Shek and the Nationalist Chinese, written between April and November, 1943 while DeFremey was held prisoner by the Japanese. The lot is comprised of two separate note books sewn into a crude binding, the first inscribed by de Fremey to fellow prisoner, RAF Air Commodore C.O.F. Modin, captured on Sumatra. De Fremery's first journal, 42pp. 8vo., is a detailed history of China between 2800 BC and 1707 AD. The second volume is much more appealing to modern historians. It continues the history, up to current time, and offers much details on Chiang Kai Shek, the Nationalists, and the Japanese invaders, approx. 23 pages. In very small part: '...Chinese government protested firstly against the fact that Japan started a war on Chinese territory...after defeating the Germans. The Japanese were very much offended...[and] handed to the Chinese the notorious '21 demands'...' He described the demands and Chinese anger that German possession in China would be ceded to the Japanese. He further discusses the 'Nine Power Treaty', warlords taking power, and then starts his praise of Chiang: '...[Chiang] succeeded within a few years...to subjugate all the warlord-governors...Wu Pe Fu and Chang Cho Lin retained their freedom...he started with energy to restore peace and prosperity...reforestation, road building, cooperative societies...[he wanted] a strong well-equipped army...the sinister Japanese plans were no secret...' He describes the occupation of Manchuria, the failure of the League of Nations to intervene, and the weakness of the Chinese forces. He continues: '...the Communists...has succeeded in 1931 to establish a communist state in Kiangsi...In 1935 80,000 communists marched...to Shensi...to fight the Japanese. The fight of course retarded the work of Chiang Kai Shek considerably...people waited for the proper moment to betray him...sabotaged his plans...The Japanese caused considerable trouble...in Northern China...On the 7th of July 1937, there was the faked Marco Polo bridge incident...the Lukia Chiao bridge incident...Japanese troops were poured into North China...all the railways at once were arranged for troop transportation...China was not ready to fight...' De Fremery offers many excuses for Chiang's failure to be prepared, including the public's demand for immediate war against Japan. He describes the Japanese conquest of China, taking of Nanking, and their bloody advance westwards. Yet, de Fremery praises Chiang for preventing the complete annihilation of the Chinese Army. He concludes: 'What the world is waiting for is the defeat of the Japanese in the Pacific. To this defeat the marvelous resistance by the Chinese under the magnificent leadership of general Chiang Kai Shek will have contributed considerably...'. Overall very good to fine. It is especially interesting to note that no mention of Mao Zedong or the communists' war efforts is mentioned anywhere in the text. In his somewhat prophetic conclusion, de Fremery saw a postwar China under Chiang having: '...a rebirth of a new Chinese empire...is going to grow to become a prosperous country working together with the other democratic countries...' In the pre-war years, de Fremery submitted reports on the Chinese military and the political situation to the General Staff of the Royal Netherlands Indies Army. After his retirement, Col. De Fremery joined the group of Western military specialists who were helping Chiang Kai Shek in his efforts to modernize the Nationalist Chinese armed forces. Following his resignation from the military, De Fremery continued to live in China but continued to collect as much information about the Japanese armed forces as possible. His reports, rare coming from a westerner in China, proved very valuable to the Allies.