Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1941-04-04
Russia And
This Country
To Aid China


has become the official line of Chi
nese diplomacy.
Such an alliance has long been the
desire of the liberal group headed by
Sun Fuo, son of Sun Yatsen and Presi
dent of the Legislative Yuan. Now
it is being advocated by newspapers
and politicians attached to all fac
tions save the extreme right.
obviously the situation calls for
an improvement of Soviet-American
relations" Wong Wen-hao, Minister
of Economic Affairs said recently.
"Both the United States and Soviet
Russia have profound theological and
material reasons for stopping Japan
It is the obvious course for them to
find basis of common action to OPP
pose Japanese aggression.
AS to what this common action"
should be, officials are diplomatical-
ly vague. The general idea seems to
be that Russia maintain large bodies
of troops on the Manchurian border,
so as to immobilize Japanese troops
which otherwise might be used for
southwark expansion" The Chinese
appear to advocate Soviet-American
agreement partly as defense meas
ure, as a guarantee that Russia will
not come to terms with Japan, thus
freeing the Japanese Manchurian
Army.
Furthermore, the Chinese hope that
the increased flow of supplies of all
sorts from the United States to Rus
STA, which would doubtless follow an
understanding, might induce Russia
to send more to China. If southern
Asia becomes a battlefield, the long
road to Russia may be China's only
communication with the outside
world.
About what specific forms aid to
China from America should take,
Chinese officials are non-committal.
They hope that the American navy
will fight for Singapore in the event
of the Japanese attacking it, and
that America will clamp down the lid
on American-Japanese trade. At the
same time they hope it will extend
more credit to China.
The best-informed Chinese Off
Gals, such as Wong Wen-hao, do not
expect that China will benefit ire
mendously from American credit. It
is well known that China is not able
to import enough American goods to
exhaust the credit it has, and if Amer
lea should go to war with Japan,
Sino- American trade would almost
disappear. In fact, Wong Wen-hao
expressed the opinion that the out
break of war in the Pacific would
temporarily depress Chinese econ
omy. To the Chinese, however, the
prospect of Soviet-American under
standing of some sort seems the sill
yer lining in very dark cloud. Presi
dent Roosevelt's reference to Russia
as a friendly power, Secretary of
State Cordell Hull's conversation with
the Soviet ambassador, the enhance
ment of Soviet-American trade in
the Pacific, and the announcement that
an American consulate general would
be established at Vladivostok have
spurred China's hopes. Every indi-
cation that an agreement between the
two countries is possible, no matter
how slight, starts widespread discus
sion and produces much favorable "of
ficial reaction"
Chungking's Communist newspap-
er, the Sin Xua Jih Pao, has been
running a series of editorials advo-
eating increased American aid to
China, though they say nothing spe-
cific about American cooperation
with Russia in this matter. The Com
munists are in a peculiar position. On
one hand they condemn the European
war as "imperialist" and term Ameri-
can aid to Britain as ill-disguisedI
participation. On the other, they ask
America to help China, and hope that
America and Japan will go to war.
The Communists solve this diem
ma by novel theory of parallel
wars. An Acknowledgements war
would be imperialistic, they say, and
therefore China, which is fighting a
just war of independence, should not
ally itself with America. Thus the
two wars should be conducted separ-
ately, with perhaps a bit of strictly
informal cooperation. Presumably,
therefore, Russia could not formally
participate in an Acknowledgment
war.
The desire of most Chinese politi-
cal groups for Soviet-American rap
proachement partly reflects changes
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