Evening star., 1950-01-14


ism via Com Dorothy Thompson.
munism now, they were not i'm
portant in halting japanese i'm
perialism then. Yet when Man
churia was invaded, Mr.. Stimson
attempted to persuade the League
of Nations to impose sanctions
and our policy thenceforward was
based on the thesis that the con-
quest of China would be a STEP
pingstone to the conquest of Asia
Every japanese overture for rec
ognition of special right In
China was rejected, and it was
the intransigence of that rejec-
ton which led to war.
So when Senator Connally asks
"Are you willing to risk American
lives and a war over China?"-the
answer is that we already have
done so, and won that war at
great expenditure of blood. only
to undo the policies that justified
1t.
The war in China was always
a civil war. Until Russia was at
tackled, the Chinese Communists
opposed Chang Kai-shek's strug-
gle against the Japanese, and, at
all times, stabbed the Kuomintang
in the back. The japanese re-
cruited Chinese soldiers and, rul-
ing through Chinese, established
pro-Japanese governments over
large parts of China. which for a
long time were in effective con-
troll"
Domination Opposed.
Japan had a following in China
undoubtedly sincere. believing in
Japanese leadership to establish
a co-prosperity sphere. But the
United States opposed the DOM
ination of Europe and Asia by
Germany and Japan; and that
was why we went to war. Our
friends were those who also op-
posed it. and in China they were
the Kuomintang. When Madame
Chang said in her farewell talk
"Others have changed but my
husband has not" she told the
truth.
At the time, the merits or de-
merits Of the Chang government
were ignored-for the issue was
the independence of China and
friendly relations between China
and the United States.
And how did Formosa revert to
China? Who gave" Formosa to
China, and why?
Formosa was recognized as part
Of China because the Western
Allies. in alliance with Chang, de-
feated Japan, and Formosa was
returned to an ally not only be-
cause its population was Chinese
but because we wished to keep 1t
In friendly hands. If Japan had
been an ally and China an enemy
Formosa would not have been
given to China. To reward a gov
ernment hostile to us, at the cost
of a friendly one is, indeed, quix-
otic. I should think that legally
until peace treaty is signed with
Japan, Formosa, a prewar Jap.
anese possession, could be re.
garded as under the temporary
sovereignty that rules Japan
American military government.
Could Have Applied i'm Il.
have previously said that thi'
administration cannot take effec.
tive action because it has de-
stroyed its case for doing so. But
it has also destroyed President
Roosevelt's case for intervention ir
China. No one in his senses will
argue that it is less. dangerous te
the United States to have Russian
puppets in China than Japanese
or that the domination of Eurasis
by one power (the U. S. S. RI Is
safer than by two (Japan and
Germany. If, therefore, the stand
recently taken by Mr.. Acheson i.
good and wise, it would have beer
equally good and wise in l941!
And, in the making of oul
foreign policy, one man, Prof
Jessup. called the alter ego Of Mr.
Acheson, has been consistent. Fol
until Pearl Harbor, Mr.. JessuI
was an active opponent of tht
Roosevelt policy of aid tos tn,
Allies, and champion of i'm.
partial American neutrality, Al
can be substantiated by reference
to many statements at that time.
Prof. Jessup would appear to b,
counseling today the same polio,
he would have counseled had h,
held his present position in 1899
fs41. and which would have givel
Japan, as far as America is con
cerned, a free hand In Asia.
1t is only odd that Presiden
Truman. verbally the upholder o
the policy of President Roosevelt
should appoint to such responsi
bility in foreign affairs a mai
whose arguments in 1939-41 fur
nished ammunition for the Amer
lea First Committee.
It Is as though we rolled tn
war backward to the point wher
1t should not have begun, makinI
Russia, this time, the beneficiary
released by the Bell Syndicate, Inc.)
Richmond Ministers Back