Evening star., 1951-02-22

| Spondent and to grant ME a visa
but, through the good Offices of
Indian Ambassador Sardar z. M
Panikkar, they allowed me to pro-
ceed to Peiping and stay for a
time.
I may say at once that neither
before I left Hong Kong nor in
China did l meet a single nom
Chinese who did not emphatically
state that the peoples republican
government is incomparably better
tnan the old Kuomintang govern
fment or any government from
which a living tradition descends.
For the first time in more than
a generation, prices are stable and
the swollen currency is being rap
idly Debated. For the first time,
public opinion regards the
squeeze" as morally wrong. For
the first time, soldiers learn they
are protectors and servants Of the
public, not masters.
My visit conceded with days Of
crisis when the fatesscf the world
seemed to be hanging in a balance
between Lake Success and Peiping.
Hope of a peaceful solution rose
when China announced her will
ingness to agree to cease fire
period during which a conference
OF seven powers named by her
should be held. Hope fell when
Australia, New Zealand. France,
Canada and finally Britain an
nounced they would support a
resolution declaring China an ag-
gressor in Korea. / left Peiping
in an hour of pessimism-which !
did not share-but there was re-
lief, since dissipated, that the
crucial vote was still being post
poned.
That leaders of proved quality
who have the people at their call
should apparently be prepared to
throw away in war with the
United Nations for the sake of
Korea all that has been gained
and all that shines before them
along the upward road of rural
reconstruction and industrial de-
velopment is surely phenomenon
that requires explanation.
For. win or lose, such a war il
waged for long would end the
hopes of industrializing China for
generations and bring to naught
the common program of the
Chinese peoples political confer
ence.
No explanation that I have
heard is fully convincing and
therefore I do, not believe that
anything of the sort will happen
But here are the pointers which ]
shall put forward in a subsequent
analysis. One is a belief in Chinese
lnvincibility that the sudden and
swift success of the last stages OF
the revolution, when the Com
munists swept the Kuomintang of
the mainland and into the sea
las engendered. This belief was
tripled by the early success of the
Chinese intervention in Korea, the
retreat of Gen. MacArthur's troops
from North Korea and the evacua-
tion of Seoul.
A second pointer is an equal
belief in the Soviet's invincibility
srd firm faith in her loyalty to
China. Yet another pointer is the
hitherto ineradicable creed of
Chairman Mao Tse- -tung and his
followers that American aims are
evil and that American business
is permeated by kind of corrup-
ton. of which China has drasti-
tcally purged herself. They regard
the Chinese squeeze and American
graft as interchangeable terms, and
pray that dictatorship of the
people may be preserved from the
stencil of American Democracy.
Proof of this alleged American
evil they find in Latin America
where they say American vested
interests long have played politics
to line their pockets and financed
dictators or revolutions with re-
gard only to their own profit anc
complete indifference to the wei.
fare of the people. From this II
follows that the Chinese resent the
prominent part that Latin Ameri.
can countries they consider stooge.
of the United States play in the
United Nations.
In particular. Latin American