Evening star., 1950-06-21

is fiatly against any military as
sistance to Chang in his island
stronghold. The fact that policies
are being reviewed, however. at
least opens the possibility of a
reversal Of this position.
At the State Department. the
Far Eastern review has been un-
dertaken under the direction of
Assistant Secretary Dean Rusk
He recently took over control of
Far Eastern affairs for Secretary
AcheSon.
In Tokyo, Secretary Of Defense
johnson and Gen. Omar Bradley.
chairman Of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, are comforting with Gen.
Douglas Macarthur on the whole
range of United States security
interests in the Western Pacific,
including the Formosan situation.
Rusk Talks with COP Chiefs.
Furthermore, Mr.. Rusk has
brought q new element into his
study by conferring with Senate
Republican leaders. This was in
line with the State Departments
policy of seeking bipartisan con-
sultation on foreign problems in
the Far East as well as in Europe.
Mr.. Rusk has talked over the
Formosan problem with Senators
Taft, Republican, of Ohio;
Bridges, Republican, of New
Hampshire; Brewster, Republican,
of Maine: Millikin. Republican,
of Colorado; Knowland. Republi-
can. of California and Wiley, Re
publican, of Wisconsin.
That group includes some of
the Senate's bitterest critics of
administration handling of China
policy and some of its strongest
advocates of aid to Generalissimo
Chang in the defense of Formosa.
The Republicans are reported to
have told Mr.. Rusk they will hold
their fire on the Formosan issue
for the present. The idea is to
wait until Mr.. johnson has re-
turned from Tokyo and the ad-
ministration has a chance to de-
termine precisely what its future
attitude toward the island will be.
Several Factors Govern Stand.
Several factors apparently will
enter into the final decision. Per-
haps the most important will be
Gen. MacArthur's views as ex-
pressed to Mr.. johnson and the
extent to which Mr.. johnson
presses for their acceptance by
the President. If Gen. MacAr-
thur strongly favors strengthen
ing Formosan defenses, and If
this is reflected formally in some
new decision Of the Joint Chiefs
Of Staff, the pressure on the ad-
ministration to change its atti-
tude will be very great.
At the same time, diplomatic
authorities were obviously uncer-
tain as to how far or how fast
Mr.. Truman might be able to eff
feet a change, assuming that his
advisers advocate one.
The administration has COM
pletely written off the Chang
government and has taken a
strong stand on the Formosan
question, as shown by two docu-
ments:
/. The China white paper late
last summer branded the Chang
government a failure due to al
legged incompetence. corruption
of some officials and a failure to
make needed reforms. The Com
munist victory on the China
m ainland was attributed to
Chiang's weakness.
2. In January, after weeks of
public debate in and out of Con-
gress, Mr.. Truman issued state
ment saying that Formosa was
Chinese territory and that the
United States will not pursue a
course which will lead to involve
ment in the civil conflict in
China"
He then ruled out any military
aid or advice to the Chinese forces
on Formosa and said that the
resources in the island were ade-