America and China
The massive White Paper on China, published by the U.S. State Department last week and described by Mr. Acheson as "a frank record of an extremely complicated problem," tells in detail a story which was already known in outline. As an ally,.as a mediator and as a would-be reliever of economic distress, America deployed in China unlimited good will, large numbers of men (some very able men) and vast quantities of money and material. First she tried to get the Chinese to fight the Japanese, then to make peace among themselves, then to rehabilitate their economy. In each case she failed decisively. Frustrated by the apathy and corruption of the Nationalists and by the intransigence of the Communists, she burnt her fingers and left all the chestnuts in the fire. It is possible, though unlikely, that the future may furnish further instances of attempts at direct, large-scale intervention in the affairs of China by a friendly foreign Power ; but if it does the attempts will be failures, however closely the strategic, economic or ideological interests of the parties may coincide. For the Chinese are like that. The White Paper has cut the remaining ground from under the feet of the small but vocal group in America who still want their Govern- ment to reinforce failure by making a firm stand against the Chinese Communists ; for it demonstrates that you cannot make a firm stand on a quicksand. Nothing, meanwhile, has happened to relieve the increasingly serious plight of Shanghai or to retard the slow but steady advance of the Communist armies on South China. In the north there is evidence that some internal difficulties have arisen and are being ruthlessly dealt with. Under existing conditions dis- content and banditry are as inevitable in the "liberated areas" as they are outside them, and only the most crass type of wishful thinking will see in these outbreaks anything more significant than the normal reaction of the Chinese peasant to too much interference from above coupled with an unhealthy economic situation.
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