Evening star., 1947-01-30
Up to the Chinese

CQlEld QOeS nOI COME DIS SURPRISE.
1t was foreshadowed early this
month by the statement made by
General Marshall on his return from
that unhappy land. Now, in his new
capacity as Secretary of State. he
has merely confirmed the expected.
But that does not make the news
any the less disheartening. As far as
the peace of Asia is concerned-and
I Asia's peace is vital to the peace of
the world-the development repre-
sents setback of the first order.
Yet, given things as they are in
China, the Situation was scarcely
avoidable. Over year ago, when
General Marshall went there as his
special envoy. President Truman
spoke hopefully of the outlook. Our
main objectives were % to stop the
long civil strife between the forces
of Generalissimo Chang Kai-shek
and the Chinese Communists; (2) to
end the one-party rule of the Kuo-
mintang and to make the Chang
government more democratic by
broadening it to include representa-
tiveS of all parties, and 90 with
internal peace and unity thus es-
tablisned, to work out plans for the
countrys economic rehabilitation
and long-term stability. At first
there seemed to be very great pro-
gress toward these objectives, and
General Marshall displayed marked
optimism about them as recently as
last March. Unfortunately, however,
everything went from bad to worse
from then on. making almost in
evitable the present American de-
cision to abandon the attempt to
bring the two factions together.
What happened was that the Kuo-
mintang- Communist agreements of
last January and February-agree-
ments on ending hostilities, on re-
organizing and merging the opposing
armies into a single national army,
and on establishing more demo-
cratic government never
properly honored by either side.
General Marshall strove patiently
and brilliantly to have them trans
lated from mere words into con-
crete action. but his effort failed.
AS his recent statement made clear,
the blame for this rested primarily
on the feudal-minded extremists of
the Kuomintang and the diehard
revolutionaries among the Commu-
nists. Bitterly distrusting and fear
ing each other, they refused to
implement the paper pledges and
made further American mediation
pointless at this stage. So our elabo-
rate truce personnel setup is to be
withdrawn, and our relatively small
military contingent is to come home,
and the Chinese are left to work
matters out for themselves. Since
our Ambassador will remain at his
station and since the United States
continues anxious to break the stale
mate, it would be mistake to say
that we are washing our hands of
the situation, but it is fact never
theIess that we have told China, in
effect, to seek peace and unity by
itself.
This means, among other things,
that our Export-Import Bank will
continue to withhold the $500, ,000,-
900 1t has earmarked for loans to
China. Above all, it raises the posi-
bility of unrestrained civil war-a
situation that might invite neighbor-
ing Russia to fish in the troubled
waters. If the Chinese are to avoid
this danger they will have to
place their country above faction.
Whether they will do it now. after
having failed to do it during the
Marshall mission. remains to be
seen. If they do not do it, they will
be striking hard at themselves and
at the worlds overall peace effort