The Wilmington morning star., 1945-11-23
Interpreting
The News
BY JAMES D. WHITE

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 22-(P
There are gaping holes in what
we actually know about what is
going on in China.
Civil war threatens there to en-
gulf fifth of humanity, but opin-
ions we form now about it can be
but tentative in the light Of our
only partial Information.
Let's begin with the Chinese Com
munists. They are boys who say
Chang Kai-shek is a dictator and
that they more truly represent the
people. But how many people? To
what extent has their influence over
something like 100, 900 North
China peasants sprung from the
people themselves and to what ex-
tent has it been imposed?
The Communists say they want
a democratic China, but what about
the fears of liberal Chinese that If
given chance the Communists will
merely replace one-party rule by
the Kuomintang with one of their
own?
Now let's take the Kuomintang
government itself. Reports from
Chungking about the "battles' with
the Communists don't always jibe
with each other. For instance in
Suiyuan province it first was re-
ported that two armies of 100, 900
Chinese Communist troops were in
vading the province. Later these
were scaled down to 10000 each.
The city of Paotow was reported
captured. Today it still is 'besieg-
ed" Quite a disparity there. What
does it mean?
A party of Chungking officials,
sent to Changchun to take over
Manchuria from the Russians, gets
back to China and says the Rus
SLAMS served them with set OF de-
mands which exceeded the notorious
81 demands of Japan in 1915. If
true, this could be an outright vio-
lation of the recent Sino-Russian
pact which upholds the authority of
the Chungking government. But
none of these officials will allow
himself to be quoted, which can
only throw grave doubt on what
one of them is saying. In Chung
king itself there are many rumors
about the Russians, but no official
c,il fIoaro
All right, what are the Russians
doing? They don't say, except that
they are withdrawing from Man.
churia on schedule, as agreed upon
with Chungking itself. They do not
answer unofficial and largely an
onymous charges that they are
making off with equipment and
leaving the field to the Chinese
Communists.
We come now to the United States
of America. This government, like
Russia, recognizes Chungking as
the legal government of China, but
has plugged theoretically for an
agreement between Chungking and
the Communists.
To uphold the sovereignty of the
Chungking government and help it
disarm Japanese troops we have
Nationalist troops by
sea and air and sent in U. S. Ma
rines to hold some areas until the
Nationalist could get there. Secre-
tary of State Byrnes now states
t.. there was another reason tor
this-we promised the Japanese aft
er they surrendered that we would
see their troops got home safely
from China. Why not? But why was
this kept secret for three months,
and why is it disclosed just at this
moment?
One reporter recalled yesterday,
too, that the United States still has
in Yenan, the Chinese Communist
capital, a group of more than 20
observers, whose official reports
presumably cover the Yenan angles
of the Chinese dispute. If released,
these reports might balance the
Kuomintang side of the argument
which comes to the American pub
lie through Chungking censorship.
This censorship, by the way, al
lows such Yenan reports to come
through as the extreme Communist
allegations that America is inter.
vening in China, even to the extent
of building a large naval base in
Shanghai.
For the past year or so there