Evening star., 1945-03-11
China Needs Help
As Peace BuIwurk
San Francisco Conference May
Bring Constructive Meeting

~ S~SS - w III N
San Francisco Conference May
Bring Constructive Meeting
By John H. Cline.
The report that Generalissimo Chang
Kai-shek is coming to the San Fran
cisco Security Conference to meet with
President Roosevelt may very well be
true, for there are many problems which
| must be solved between them If China
is to be the bulwark of peace in the Far
| East.
There is every reason to suppose. that
| the end of the Pacific war will witness
the destruction of Japan as a major
power, at least for many years to come.
We are committed to the prosecution of
| the war until Japan has surrendered
Internationally. In our view that does
| not necessarily contemplate a totally
crushed and broken Japan, and there is
the of chance that the japanese, when
| defeat becomes inevitable, will throw
| in the sponge in an effort to salvage
| dream of world dominion. But it should
| be emphasized that this is only a pos
| sibility. II Japan fights in her home
islands and on the Asiatic mainland as
She has fought in her outer defenses
| she will not surrender Internationally
until she has been utterly crushed and
| ruined.
That in turn will leave a great void
IN the Far East--a void which must be
filled If there is to be anything like a
stable peace in that quarter of the world
AS Donald Nelson has put it, some
other nation must take Japans place in
the world of industry and trade and be-
yond doubt democratic, peace-loving
China is that nation" Before that can
come to pass, however, the new China
must emerge from the blueprint stage
In his report to the President follow
ing his trip to Chunking last year, Mr..
Nelson said that the success of China's
venture in planned war production, if
properly followed up through American
Government and business channels will
make for close postwar economic rela-
tions between China and the United
States. In his opinion China has the
capacity and the desire to develop her
self industrially with American aid, and
in his judgment, if that aid is realistic
ally planned and is put on sound busi-
ness basis, China soon after the war can
begin to replace Japan as the leading
industrial nation of the Orient. Henry
A. Wallace, another believer in the
future of China, contends that the world
is now entering upon what might be
called the era of the Pacific" and he
says that trade with China will help
keep the factories of America busy in
the days which lie ahead"
Both of these views, needless to saw,
are conditioned by the assumption that
the China of tomorrow will be vastly
different from the China which clung to
feudal status while the Industrial revo-
luton was sweeping the Western World.
More than 80 per cent of China's 450,-
100000 people are engaged in agricul-
ture. Yet even in peacetime China S
production of foodstuffs was not suf-
flcient for her needs. Seventy-five per
cent of all the country's farms are under
five acres in size and farming is largely
by hand methods. Transportation facil-
tiles are wretchedly inadequate. IS per
cent of farm produce being moved by
wheelbarrow or drag boat; so per cent by
human bearers-a circumstance which
explains why there can be devastating
famine in one section OF China while
another Is relatively well supplied with
food.
Nor has China been much better OH
in the industrial sense. When the Japa-
nese seized Manchuria in 1881, while
the Western powers looked the other
way, China lost one of the most highly
industrlalized areas of the Orient. Since
then one after another of the country's
most valuable productive areas have
been orerrun by the invader Neverthe-
less. the efficiency of Chinese war pro-
duction has shown a slow but steady
improI ement throughout the long years
of conflict. In spite Of japanese occupa-
tion Of major industrial and agricul-
tural areas, japanese control of most Of
China's prewar transportation facilities,
all Chinese ports and the seizures of
areas containing nearly half of China's
population, production of many essential
war and civilian goods has been sus-
tanned and even increased in Free
China during the war. It is well to
remember these things when China's
war effort is belittled. for the remark
able fact is not that China is weak by
our standards but that she has been able
to keep any kind of military effort alive
during the long years of virtual isola-
ton and incredible suffering.
1t Is this tenacity of purpose this
refusal to yield in the face of seemingly
hopeless odds, which promises most for
the future. Even with full and in
telligent assistance, China will have
very hard shedding when the war ends
But there are important entries on the
credit side of the ledger. In the sum-
mer of 1914 there were 4,517 factories in
Fee China-one thousand more than
China had before the war Her produc-
tion of coal, iron and steel, machine
tools, machinery textiles and chemicals,
while not large, is increasing despite the
crippling effects Of the Japanese oc-
cupation. Although agriculture prob
ably will continue to be the basic
Chinese industry, there are important